BY Corey Johns
Senior Staff Writer

“We got our [butt] kicked,” said coach Randy Monroe. “We played against a team that [was] hungrier than us. They beat us in every phase of the game. We played lack-luster.”

At one point in the second half against American, UMBC was down by 26 points, which proved to be too much even after a valiant effort down the stretch. With three minutes left in the game UMBC battled back and cut the deficit to just eight points, but a called intentional foul on Chauncey Gilliam effectively sealed the game for American and turned the momentum completely in American’s favor.

“When you dig yourselves a hole that deep early you have to expend so much energy trying to fight back and that’s not going to happen against good teams,” Monroe said. “There are no excuses, we got our butts kicked tonight and we didn’t deserve to win this game.”

When a team doesn’t rebound or shoot well it almost becomes impossible to win and UMBC did not do either well.  They were out rebounded 34-24 (24-9 in the first half), and shot just 70.6 percent from the free throw line and 42.3 percent from the field.  But those stats were brought up by a much better second half.  In the first half UMBC made just six baskets and three free throws in a 17 point first half.

The second half was much better as the Retrievers slowed the game down and did not rush shots, but they put themselves in a hole in the first half they could not get out of to give themselves a 74-61 loss, despite a double-double (22 points and 11 rebounds) by Darryl Proctor and a 16 point night from Jay Greene.

“You can’t just rely on Darryl Proctor and Jason Greene all the time to do things,” Monroe said. “Matt Spadafora, Justin Fry, and Richard Flemming have to step up and accept the challenge and help these guys out and if they do that we’re a good basketball team.  But night in and night out you can’t just sit there and rely on Jason Greene and Darryl Proctor to do the job and just sit there and not help out.”

One positive of the game was everybody played. Jake Wasco was impressive and showed the ability to get up and down the court, good footwork, and good defense.

“I was happy with the job that Jake Wasco did as a freshman and Chauncey Gilliam and Bakari Smith did when they came in,” Monroe said. “I was happy with the young guys’ effort because they came in with some passion and some effort.”

This game was more than just a non-conference game to Monroe. “I told our guys playing American was similar to playing Boston University.”

Garrison Carr, who scored 34 points, has a very similar style of play to Corey Lowe and Monroe wanted to get a good look at how they would play against him. Obviously a 34 point night is not what Monroe expected, but there is still time to rebound.

UMBC will finish up 2008 with two more non-conference games in a long road stretch to Nebraska and St. Louis before starting conference play.