BALTIMORE – The UMBC men's basketball team captured at least a share of its third America East Conference regular-season championship after defeating the Bryant Bulldogs, 70-58, on Thursday evening at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena. The Retrievers can clinch the conference championship outright, along with the top overall seed in the Army Reserve #AEPlayoffs, with one more victory against either UMass-Lowell or NJIT. UMBC will host a league quarterfinal game on Saturday, March. 7.
The Retrievers, who have won seven straight, finished a perfect 8-0 at home in conference play and improved to 12-2 at the 'Peake overall.
Fifth-year head Coach
Jim Ferry has now won regular-season conference titles at four different stops, including Plymouth State, Adelphi, LIU Brooklyn, and UMBC.
Graduate student forward
Josh Odunowo and junior guard
Ace Valentine paced UMBC with 15 points apiece. Odunowo went 5-for-5 from the floor and added six rebounds, while Valentine connected on 6-of-10 attempts and added four assists and four caroms. Graduate student guard
DJ Armstrong Jr. added 10 points while junior forward
Jose Roberto Tanchyn chipped in with nine points, a game-high 13 rebounds (tied season-high for third time), along with a season-best three blocks.
The Retrievers (19-8, 12-2 AE) led 36-30 at intermission as they shot an even fifty percent in the opening half and held the Bulldogs to just a 34.6 percent clip.
Bryant took their first lead of the night at 39-38 with 17:14 left in the contest after Aaron Davis knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing to cap a 9-2 spurt. The score was deadlocked at 43-43 with 14:10 left, but the Retrievers scored eight straight points over the next 2:25 to take the lead for good at 51-43. Valentine splashed a triple from the top of the key, and senior guard
Cougar Downing followed with another long-range bomb to ignite the run. Armstrong Jr. capped the key burst with a driving layup.
The hosts took their first double-digit lead when Valentine finished a layup to make it 55-45 with 10:07 remaining. Bryant answered with five straight to slice the lead in half with 8:07 left, but Downing buried another trifecta, and the Dawgs received back-to-back layups from Valentine and Odunowo to give the Retrievers their largest lead at 62-50 with 5:43 remaining.
The Bulldogs (8-20, 4-10) managed to close within 62-55 with 4:24 left on a three-pointer by Keegan Harvey. Tanchyn, and Valentine answered with layups, and the Retrievers held the visitors without a point for over three minutes to put the game away.
UMBC held a 40-23 advantage on the boards and outscored the Bulldogs by a 34-16 margin in the paint.
UMBC will travel to UMass Lowell on Saturday afternoon and will conclude the regular season at NJIT next Tuesday evening.
