Yes it’s March; however, the Northeastern men’s basketball team isn’t experiencing any madness. No, after two convincing wins over the University of Maine, 86-73, and Stony Brook University, 90-79, in last weekend’s America East tournament, the feeling on Huntington Avenue is more along the lines of merriment.

With Sunday’s semifinal win over the Maine Bearcats, the Huskies advance to the America East championship game against the No. 1 seed University of Vermont Catamounts in Burlington, Vt. Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

“I’m very proud of these guys,” said NU coach Ron Everhart, who was named the America East Coach of the Year. “We came out and accomplished a goal we set for ourselves.”

A healthy dose of irony makes this nationally televised game a fitting-finale to Northeastern’s last season as a member of America East. Northeastern suffered its last loss of the regular season on that same court over a month ago when UVM stole a 72-64 victory from the Huskies, closing the game out with an 18-8 run. That loss was arguably the turning point for the Huskies as they have not only won all seven games since, but they’ve out-hustled and out-executed every team they have faced.

Behind the stellar play of Jose Juan Barea, that trend continued this weekend.

In two of the most important games of his collegiate career the junior from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico took his already elite game to another level and showed those in attendance or watching on NESN he is legitimate.

After scoring a career-high 41 points during Saturday’s quarterfinal win over SBU, Barea might have understandably been cut some slack during Sunday’s game against Maine. After all, 41 points, the second highest total in AE tourney history, is a tough act to follow. However, the 6-foot guard was up to the task. All he did was fall two rebounds short of a triple-double by scoring 20 points, dishing out 11 dimes and pulling in eight rebounds to help secure a spot for his team in the championship game.

“It feels good to get a chance to go to Vermont and play in the championship game,” Barea said. “It’s gonna be fun.”

The Huskies were paced by the exceptional play of senior guard Marcus Barnes, who scored a season-high 27 points, mostly by driving to the hoop instead of settling for just three-pointers as he often does (his 76-made threes are third in the conference).

“It was all instincts,” Barnes said. “I just caught the ball and felt like I could drive to the basket.”

America East Freshman of the Year Shawn James, who was also named the AE Defensive Player of the Year, blocked his normal five shots, but was also the third Husky player to score 20 or more points in the game with his 21-point, eight-rebound effort.

It looked like the Huskies had the game in hand at the end of the first half, but despite being down by 17 points at the break, the Bearcats fought back to within one point of NU with 7:04 remaining in the game. Maine guard Kevin Reed capped a valiant 28-11 run with his seventh three-pointer of the game, bringing the score to 63-62.

The Bearcat run was sparked when Barea was called for a technical foul after getting hit in the face while going up for a layup and not getting the call.

“It’s just part of the game,” Barea said. “I saw a hand coming towards my face so I just threw the ball up there trying to draw the foul, but I didn’t get it.”

Perhaps rekindling some painful memories of last year’s quarterfinal upset loss at the hands of the University of Hartford, Reed’s trifector was to Sunday’s game what the Feb. 5 UVM loss was to the Huskies’ season; it was the slap in the face the team needed to get back on track, the turning point when the red and black decided enough was enough and starting playing Husky basketball.

The Bearcats would not score for the next four-plus minutes and NU would seal the deal by ending the game on a 23-11 run.

In their 90-79 quarterfinal win against Stony Brook, the Huskies were led by their floor general Barea, whose 41 points tie the late, great Reggie Lewis for most in a single game in school history.

Barnes and Janon Cole were the only other Huskies to score in double figures with 16 and 13, respectively.

The Huskies will go for their first conference title in 15 years, while they make their first championship game appearance since 1995.