BURLINGTON, Vt. – The highly anticipated championship match-up between the No. 1 seed University of Vermont Catamounts and the No. 2 seed Northeastern men’s basketball team failed to live up to the hype as UVM easily defeated the Huskies, 80-57, Saturday in Burlington, Vt.
“We’re very disappointed we didn’t play better,” said NU coach Ron Everhart. “I don’t think we converted well. We missed some easy shots. When you do that against a team like Vermont, it can get ugly in a hurry.”
Northeastern shot 36.2 percent for the game, including 28.6 percent showing in the second half.
The game was a blowout from the get go as the Huskies couldn’t stop UVM forward Taylor Coppenrath, the America East Player of the Year. The friendly giant, who has won the last three POY awards, scored 37 points on 17-of-24 shooting while also pulling in nine boards.
There really were no bright spots for the Huskies, as their leading scorer, junior guard Jose Juan Barea struggled, shooting only 6-of-16 from the floor in just 24 minutes before leaving the game with a sprained ankle. Part of the problem for Barea was the spotty refereeing, he said.
“It’s a tough environment, it’s tough for the refs too. I thought I got fouled a couple of times and they didn’t call it,” Barea said. “You just gotta fight through.”
Barea, who averaged close to six free-throw attempts a game this year, got to the line just once before rolling his ankle on another play that could have been called a foul.
However, if the refs didn’t lose the game for NU, their poor shooting and lack of any sort of defense sealed their fate from the tip-off.
“We got a bad whistle today, we really got a bad whistle,” Everhart said. “They got a home gym whistle and it was awful. That hurt us, but we didn’t do anything to help ourselves either. We’ve been playing through that stuff all year.”
Sophomore Adrian Martinez replaced Barea in the lineup and tried to keep NU in the game, but the senior-loaded Catamounts simply don’t blow 20 point leads. Martinez finished the game with 11 points, hitting 3-of-5 trifectors and was the only other Husky besides Barea to score in double digits.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Martinez after the game. “We lost the game and that’s all that counts.”
Although the Huskies played their last game as a member of the America East (Northeastern will move to the Colonial Athletic Association next season) there are still more games to play. The Huskies were selected to play in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and will face the University of Memphis Tigers Wednesday night in Memphis, Tenn.
Before learning of the suspension that was handed down tuesday, Barea was ready for the NIT.
“I’m excited,” Barea said. “We’ve never played in a postseason tournament. We wanted to dance, but we couldn’t, but I’m excited [about the NIT]. We’ll be ready.”
Although their last conference game of the season wasn’t their best showing, the season as a whole was only a conference championship short of amazing.
Finishing this season with an overall record of 21-9 and winning 19 games last year gives NU its most wins in back-to-back seasons since the 1986-87 and ’87-88 teams, who won 27 and 15 games, respectively.
Since the Everhart era began on Huntington Avenue four years ago the team has increased its win total every year, and with another strong recruiting class that trend will hopefully continue.
