Baltimore, Md. – UMBC sophomore Dion Brown scored a game-high 25 points, but the America East leading Vermont Catamounts pulled out a 72-70 victory, on Saturday afternoon at The Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.
 
"I thought we played a really good game today, but Vermont showed why they are so good," stated UMBC head coach Jim Ferry. "We defended them really tough, were connected but came up just a bit short."
 
Brown, who has scored at least 20 points in four straight contests, went 10-for-18 overall from the floor including 3-of-4 from behind the arc.  Junior guard Marcus Banks Jr. added 16 points and freshman guard Franck Emmou added 12 points (4-of-5 3's). Graduate student forward Max Lorca-Lloyd chipped in with nine points, a team-high eight rebounds, and matched a career-best with four rejections.
 
Emmou buried a clutch triple from the top of the key with just twenty-one seconds left in regulation to even the game at 70-70, however, guard Shamir Bogues drove the lane and scooped in a game-winning layup with just over a second left for the visitors.
 
UMBC (7-18, 2-8 AE) raced out to a 25-5 advantage with 9:46 left in the opening half. The Retrievers, who forced Vermont to misfire on their first 15 field goal attempts, did not allow the visitors to convert a field goal until Nick Fiorillo's layup with 12:05 left in the stanza.
 
The Catamounts (19-6, 9-1 AE)) managed to cut the deficit down to single-digits as they used a 16-4 burst to close within 29-21 at the 4:26 mark.
 
The Retrievers settled for a 35-27 edge at halftime as they held the Catamounts to just 11-of-35 (31 percent) shooting.
 
UMBC extended their lead to 42-31 after a layup by freshman guard Ace Valentine at the 16:45 mark of the second half, but the visitors answered with seven consecutive points to trim the lead to just four points at the 12:14 mark.
 
The Retrievers still led 51-44 after sophomore forward Regimantas Ciunys came up with an offensive board and layup with 8:46 on the clock. Once again, however, Vermont made a push to get within 54-53 after a second-chance layup by Jace Roquemore with 6:11 left.
 
The hosts looked like they were still in good position to pull off the upset as they rattled off seven straight points to extend the lead to 61-53 at the 4:35 mark. Brown opened the run with a layup, Banks followed with a trifecta, and Lorca-Lloyd converted a layup.
 
Vermont refused to go away as they went on a 12-2 spurt to take their first lead of the afternoon, 65-63, with 1:55 remaining. Bogues, who had eight points during the key stretch, ended the run with a conventional three-point play.
 
Brown made a pair of free throws to even the game on the next trip down, but TJ Long connected on a trey to give Vermont a 68-65 lead with 1:22 left.
 
Brown answered with a driving layup to bring the Retrievers within a point, but TJ Hurley hit a driving layup to give his team a 70-67 edge with just under a minute left.
 
Following a UMBC timeout, Banks misfired on a 3-pointer with twenty-nine seconds left but Brown chased down the long rebound and Emmou eventually drained the equalizer with twenty-one ticks left.
 
Vermont called a timeout and set up a play for Bogues in the final seconds. The junior guard drove down the left side of the lane and converted the game-winning layup with just over a second left.
 
UMBC was unable to get off another shot as the clock expired.
 
Bogues finished with 23 points on 10-14 shooting while Hurley added 11 points. Long pulled down a game-high 11 boards and added seven points.
 
UMBC will travel to Binghamton on Thursday evening.