Vermont still in charge with third straight title

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Shamir Bogues scored 15 points, TJ Long added 14 points, and top-seeded Vermont beat No. 2 seed UMass Lowell, 66-61, on Saturday to clinch its third straight America East men’s basketball title and secure a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Catamounts (28-6) have won six of the last eight America East championships in the one-bid league, as well as nine consecutive conference postseason tournament contests.

The day started with 15 No. 1 conference tournament seeds suffering defeats in their conference tourneys.

The Riverhawks (22-10) were searching for their first NCAA Tournament bid in 11 seasons at the Division 1 level.

Aaron Deloney scored 12 points and Nick Fiorillo 11 for Vermont.

Cam Morris III scored 13 of his 17 points before intermission and grabbed 10 rebounds, Brayden O’Conner scored 14, and Ayinde Hikim 11 for the Riverhawks.

Trailing, 62-57, with a minute left, UMass Lowell killed its chances by shooting 2 for 8 from the free throw line.

Bogues and Long each survived foul trouble as Long picked up his fourth foul with 10:19 left and Bogues with 4:41 to go. Bogues made a pair of foul shots with 11:25 left to put Vermont ahead, 44-43, and the Catamounts led the remainder of the way.

Long and Fiorillo made 3-pointers in successive possessions for Vermont around a 3-point play by UMass Lowell’s O’Connor for a 50-46 lead with 9:53 remaining.

After a 3-for-15 shooting performance from 3point range before the break, Vermont made 5 of 10 in the second and finished 8 for 25 (32 percent) overall.

The Catamounts built a 16-7 lead within the first five minutes before the Riverhawks methodically began to take control of the momentum playing through Morris on the offensive end.

Morris made a pair of foul shots that reduced the Riverhawks’ deficit to 19-18 with 9:57 left before halftime. Neither team scored for 2½ minutes until Morris made a layup to give UMass Lowell its first lead since 2-0.

Morris made 4 for 5 before the break and the Riverhawks led, 32-29, at halftime.

MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS Center Donovan Clingan (left) and No. 2 UConn threw down on Ben Gold and Marquette at Madison Square Garden, giving the Huskies their first Big East tournament title since 2011.