BURLINGTON, Vt. — It’s been a long road of futility for the Maine basketball program, full of losing seasons and early ends to seasons at one of the toughest places in Division I to recruit.
The 2024-25 Maine team just figured it would get rid of all the ignominious records at once, it would appear.
Hadn’t hosted a conference tournament game since 1995? Check.
Hadn’t won a conference tournament game since 2005? Sure.
Maine entered Tuesday’s America East semifinal at Patrick Gym having lost to Vermont 30 straight times, but in perhaps the biggest game between the two teams in that span, the Black Bears ended that streak as well, putting together a defensive masterpiece in shutting down the three-time defending conference champs, 57-42.
“I don’t even think I knew that it was 30 games,” senior Kellen Tynes said. “That’s a lot of games. But we know the history here. They’ve won every year since I’ve been in the league. They’re well-coached and they’re going to play until the final buzzer, so we knew we had to be at our best.”
There is only one more stain to erase, an NCAA Tournament bid, one that Maine has been chasing since 1947-48, but never reached. Although the Black Bears will be fairly heavy underdogs at top-seeded Bryant Saturday morning, why not them?
Head coach Chris Markwood has done amazing things since arriving in Orono. Maine’s 20th win marks only the fourth time in a century of playing basketball that it has reached that mark. Markwood was on the last team to hit that mark back in 2003-04 (coached by John Giannini, who later brought La Salle to the Sweet 16), and that was also the last Black Bear team (and only one previously) to reach the America East title game. That year, Vermont—and 43 points and 13 rebounds from Taylor Coppenrath—buried them.
Maine also appeared in the 1994 North Atlantic Conference final, losing to Drexel and Malik Rose, but chances for NCAA Tournament glory have been few and far between. This iteration of Black Bear basketball would love to make history.
“We wanted the opportunity to do something at Maine that hasn’t been done before,” senior Quion Burns, who started his career at LIU, said. “We wanted to be one of the best teams in Maine history and be the first one to make the NCAA Tournament. We’ve been chasing that and now we’re close.”
The Black Bears led wire-to-wire Tuesday night for their first win of any kind over the Catamounts since 2013. Vermont had already lost then-leading scorer TJ Long earlier in the season, then had a couple of other injuries, and then all-America East guard Shamir Bogues suffered a lower body injury at UMBC on March 1.
Maine knew most of shorthanded Vermont’s offense would have to revolve around leading scorer TJ Hurley Tuesday, and did an almost perfect job of shutting him down. Hurley finished 1-of-15 from the field for just five points, making his only field goal in the waning seconds when the game was already decided.
Sam Alamatu tried his best, finishing with eight points and 21 rebounds, while Ileri Ayo-Faleye led the Catamounts with 14 points, but they were just 14-for-54 overall, 4-for-26 from behind the arc, and had 17 turnovers, which translated to a meager 0.65 points per possession for the demoralized hosts.
Maine’s offense was not particularly great at the other end, finishing at just 0.88 points per possession even with the help of 21 points off those 17 turnovers. Vermont had almost miraculously managed to win 10 straight on the strength of the best defense in the conference, but Maine did enough behind 13 points and 13 rebounds (as well as three big steals) from now three-time America East Defensive Player of the Year Tynes. While they shot just 9-of-20 from the foul line and 4-of-17 from three-point range, the Black Bears only committed three turnovers.
Maine jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never relinquished it. Vermont made a couple of runs, Jace Roquemore’s highlight-reel dunk cut the edge to 13-10 and got the crowd to their feet, but Christopher Mantis came off the bench to hit his only two three-pointers of the night to quiet the rally. No one scored in the final 3:08 of the half, allowing Maine to take a 27-19 lead into the break.
The Catamounts made one final move midway through the second half, as five straight points made it 38-31 with 10:20 left and got the crowd to their feet. But New Hampshire transfer A.J. Lopez hit what looked like an impossible attempt with the shot clock running out, and Jaden Clayton followed with a jumper. Vermont never got within double digits again, and the 30-game win streak and three years of America East dominance ended with a whimper.
“Not the prettiest of games, but we knew that coming in as good as they are defensively, and we’re not too far behind statistically,” Markwood said. “Just really proud of the fight we showed and our execution defensively in such a big spot. We made enough plays down the stretch to get it done.”
Markwood was an assistant at Vermont for three years, which he credits as his most formative years before becoming a head coach.
“I talk to Coach Becker and those guys every week,” Markwood said. “John is one of my closest friends, so it doesn’t feel great to end his season, but I’m happy it’s us going to the finals.”
Becker was proud of his team for battling at the end of the season despite everything that went wrong down the stretch, including the 10-game win streak going into Tuesday. Scoring was an issue all season and eventually was a fatal flaw, as hard as his team battles. Becker admitted he kind of missed last year’s transfer portal and in the modern era, even Vermont can’t win conference titles without transfers.
“Normally, a team that goes 21-12 the way we did would be onto something, but at the level that we’ve won, it doesn’t feel that way,” Becker said. “I think that’s unfortunate and that shouldn't be the narrative for this team. We have some work to do, and we want to get back on top. But that should shine a light on the fact on how good we’ve been.”
Maine is not ready to celebrate just yet, it has a chance for NCAA Tournament glory Saturday on national television and, despite the job Markwood is doing, you never know when that kind of opportunity will present itself again.
“We talked about it in the locker room after the game, if you get caught celebrating too long, you can’t finish the job,” Markwood said. “I do want these guys to relax, take a deep breath and enjoy this on the bus ride home, but they know as soon as we get back to Orono, it’s back to work. I’ve been a part of not finishing it as a player and as a coach, and that hurts. So we have to put our best foot forward and be ready for Saturday.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.