Vermont rally ends UAlbany NCAA bid
BURLINGTON, VT. » With the game tied and less than 50 seconds to play, University at Albany head coach Will Brown looked over to the small but spirited Great Danes cheering section behind them and motioned for them to get up.
Albany watched its nine-point lead in the final eight minutes completely evaporate. They’d made just one shot since. Brown later said there are a bunch of things that he’d kick himself for when he re-watched the tape on Monday. But Albany was on the verge of ending Vermont’s perfect America East season.
But Vermont out-scored Albany by 12 in those final seven minutes, the roar of a over-capacity Patrick Gymnasium louder with each of those 12. Albany made Brown proud, but pride was all the Great Danes had in a 56-53 loss in the conference championship on Sat-
urday morning.
“Our guys, everything we’ve talked about has been 40-plus minutes,” Brown said. “40-plus, we have to play as good as we can play for 40-plus minutes. Thirty-two wasn’t going to be good enough.”
David Nichols was the go-to guy for Albany, often at its detriment. He was 6-of-25 from the floor, and no one else on the Great Danes took more than seven shots. He took blame for the loss in the postgame press conference, saying he should have passed more. The loss, he said, was his fault. After he finished his answer, he put his face in his arms on the table, and hardly looked up again.
Joe Cremo was also ineffective. He shot 2-of-6, all in the second half. His offensive foul in the game’s final seconds all but sealed the loss. Travis Charles’ teamleading 16 points was key in keeping it a game.
A little more than two weeks ago, Albany had Vermont on the ropes in the regular season at Patrick Gym. But just like that game, a late lead evaporated and resulted in a loss. Vermont has won 21 straight games, including all 19 in the conference season. They’ll go to the NCAA Tournament while Albany looks to forward to a likely bid to another postseason tournament, perhaps the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.
“I think I might have done a little too much,” Nichols said. “I think I shot too much. I could have got Joe the ball more. I’m the point guard on the court, I’ve got to do a better job of finding him and getting him the ball. I don’t think I did my job today, and I think that’s the reason we lost.”
Vermont jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but from there, Albany was the better team. Charles worked the inside. Albany’s inferior frontcourt was superior on Saturday. They won the rebounding battle. The Great Danes took that initial hit and hit back.
Albany was using much of the shot clock every time, with both team’s defense keeping the other at bay. A fastbreak layup from Nichols was what put Albany up by nine points. At that point it seemed real. An underdog group that started the conference season 0-3 was minutes away from holding the trophy. But then a team who’s season never seemed in doubt stole it away on their home court.
A Payton Henson andone put Vermont up by three with 38 seconds left. Cremo had a chance to get Albany within one, but he was whistled for a charge. Albany stole the inbound, but Nichols air-balled a game-tying 3-pointer. Trae Bell-Haynes had a freethrow to seal it, and everyone rushed the court as UA sulked off of it.
“We were getting stops, we were rebounding the ball,” Cremo said. “We were sharing it on the other end. Finally we all started playing together on both ends. We knew they were going to make a run. It was just a couple possessions here or there.”
With 10 minutes left, Vermont head coach John Becker told his team there was too much time left. Having been in the championship game, but never won it, he spoke with experience in saying that it’s always the longest game of the season. On Saturday that worked in Vermont’s favor.
Will Brown was 5-0 in championship games, and three of them came against Vermont. Two of those had been in Vermont. “Maybe I’ll get fired,” Brown joked after the game today. He’d almost disrupted destiny again, but came up just a couple points and minutes short.
“We didn’t get down,” Henson said. “When things are bad, there are as bad as what we think. And when they’re good, they’re never as good as what we think.”
The scene in Albany’s press conference was almost backward. The perpetual roar of the Vermont fans hadn’t ceased, and the noise permeated into the press room, where Nichols was full-fledged crying, and Cremo was clearly trying to hold it back.
There might still be more basketball for Albany this season. But it won’t be in the NCAA Tournament. And because of that, there was no reason for optimism.
“Everybody on this team is competitive,” Nichols said. “... I don’t take any positives from this.”