Vermont University

Catamounts manage to hold lead

This was an all-too-familiar scene for the Vermont basketball team and its faithful: A comfortable second-half lead, victory in sight, then four minutes of gut-wrenching chaos.

The difference, this time, was the outcome.

Vermont, the youngest team in Division I college basketball, survived another homestretch meltdown Saturday, hanging on for a 64-61 victory over third-seeded Boston University that eliminated the Terriers from the America East Conference tournament and set up a noon semifinal matchup today between Vermont and Binghamton.

Vermont, the three-time defending tournament champions and No. 6 seed, advanced to the semifinals for the fifth straight year. It has 10 straight tournament victories.

Now comes second-seeded Binghamton, which won both regular-season meetings between the teams this season - the first at the Events Center in double-overtime, 61-60, and the most recent on Feb.26 when it erased an 11-point deficit in the closing minutes and stunned Vermont on its home floor, 67-62.

This time, the Bearcats may not have star forward Sebastian Hermenier, who didn’t play in Saturday’s victory over Maine because of a foot injury and will be a game-time decision today.

“We’re not exactly looking forward to playing the host team,” Vermont coach Mike Lonergan said. “We’ll look at it that Hermenier is going to play unless someone tells me different.”

In the Bearcats’ double-overtime victory over Vermont on Jan. 25, Hermenier scored 17 points - all from the free-throw line.

To get to today’s game, Lonergan’s young Catamounts had to survive another harrowing finish. There are 14 players on the University of Vermont basketball roster: 12 of them are either freshman or sophomores. And like any young team, they have had a penchant for throwing away games they’ve had in the bag.

They had lost both regular-season games to the Terriers this season - 43-41 at Boston in late January after leading, and 69-64 in overtime on Feb. 23.

Saturday, they almost lost again despite holding a 55-45 lead with 4:39 to play.

“We had seen this many times this year,” Lonergan said. “This time, we were able to keep our composure, get some rebounds and knock down some free throws.”

After a layup by junior Martin Klimes put Vermont up by 10 - its largest lead of the game - Boston turned up the defensive pressure and forced Vermont to turn the ball over three times.

From there, 6-foot-4 freshman Corey Hassan rallied Boston, scoring nine of his game-high 21 points in the final 4:16, including two three-pointers.

With nine seconds left, the Terriers had whittled the lead to 61-59 and had a chance to tie the game with freshman Marques Johnson at the free-throw line. But Johnson missed the second of his two shots and Ryan Schneider ripped down the rebound, got fouled, and sank both free throws for a 63-60 lead.

Boston had one last chance to tie, but Lonergan told his team to foul, rather than give the Terriers an opportunity to hoist a game-tying three-pointer.

“I’ve never done that in that situation, but I didn’t feel confident going into overtime,” Lonergan said

March 6th, 2006