UMBC fell behind Vermont fast. They fell behind 13-2 just four minutes into the game and UMBC was just trying too hard and forcing shots, passes, and were over pursuing on defense.

They were down 40-26 at the half and could not get back into the game in the second half. Chris De La Rosa was playing the game on a sprained ankle and scored 10 points and had six assists.

Further coverage of this game will be featured in the March 9 Issue of The Retriever Weekly.

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On the men’s side, sophomore guard Chauncey Gilliam and Chris De La Rosa have been nominated for the award. That ballot will run one extra day, until Thursday, February 25 at 12 p.m.

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Sophomore point guard Chris De La Rosa led the team with 18 points and shot a team high 50% from the field. He also shot 85% from the free throw line and dished out a team high four assists. [Corey Johns- TRW]

After having their game against Vermont moved up a day to avoid the snow storm, the men’s basketball team looked like they could have used the extra practice as they could not keep up in the 79-60 loss.

Neither team could get much of anything going on offense in the game. The flow was interrupted 52 times with fouls, resulting in a staggering 71 free throw attempts.

But Vermont found a way to get out of the gates quickly and find a double-digit lead in just eight minutes, and they never looked back. At that point Vermont was shooting 63% while UMBC was shooting just 25% from the field.

Both teams played sloppy. The Catamounts turned the ball over 21 times and committed 25 fouls, while UMBC turned the ball over 11 times and committed 27 fouls. However, despite turning the ball over so much Vermont managed to make 48.9% of their shots while UMBC struggled the entire game, shooting just 35.6%.

The game very much played out like the last time these two teams met up. In the first reigning two-time player and defensive players of the year was held to zero points and just three rebounds because of a double-team he was met with the entire game, but that left Garvey Young, a career 28.5% three-point shooter, open as he scored a career high 20 points and made three baskets from behind the arc. Sixteen of his points came in the first half.

After being down by 10 points at halftime, Randy Monroe was not pleased with the way his starting five came out in the second half and in less than two minutes subbed all five out in favor of Robbie Jackson, Brian Neller, Nick Groce, Shawn Grant, and Bakari Smith.

That group did not let Vermont pull away, and were cutting the deficit, but fouls forced Grant back to the bench, bringing Chauncey Gilliam back in and with the 14 point deficit combining with a foul call that he felt did not go his way, he was issued with a technical foul, and his fourth personal of the game.

Once that happened the starters were being filtered back in, and Vermont built their lead up to 21 points with 2:23 left in the game before Monroe was issued his fourth technical foul of the season because of frustration in the way his team was playing.

While Vermont was being carried by Young and Evan Fjeld, eight points, in the first half, their two stars came alive in the second half as Blakely scored 13 points, nine of which came from the foul line, and Maurice Joseph scored eight points, giving him 13 in the game. Brendan Bald also scored seven points in the second half, giving him nine for the game.

Sophomore guard Chauncey Gilliam has constantly been met with double-teams by opposing defenses, which has caused him to struggle from the field, shooting just 37% in his last five games, despite scoring in double figures in all of them. [Corey Johns-TRW]

UMBC however only had two players score in double figures as Chris De La Rosa led the team with 18 points and four assists and Chauncey Gilliam scored 15 points.

Despite having scored in double figures in seven straight games, Gilliam has not had much success shooting the ball over the last four. He is just 15-of-43 (34.8%) from the field but has capitalized on his free throw opportunities going 20-of-24 (83.3%) from the line.

Monroe was unavailable for questioning following the game.

Twelve days after Corey Lowe, John Holland, and Jake O’Brien each had 20 points to lead Boston U past the Retrievers in Chase Gym, the two teams met up again, this time in the RAC. But the result was no different than before as the Terriers shot 54.9% from the field and made 11 three-pointers to hand the men’s basketball team their 19th loss of the season, 79-61.

“They’re just really good, point blank,” said coach Randy Monroe. “They’re picked to win the league and they’re certainly good enough to do that.”

Holland matched his 25 points effort last game with the help of five three-pointers. He also had 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. O’Brien added 18 points and six rebounds with three blocks while Lowe packed the stat sheet with 10 points, eight assists, five rebounds, two three-pointers, and a steal. While those three were expected to have big games against UMBC again, Carlos Strong stepped up to add 13 points in their effort, hitting three three’s.

“I thought our kids gave a tremendous effort but it didn’t matter what defense we were playing, those guys are flat out good shooters,” Monroe said.

After going into the half down by 14 points UMBC looked to be done and just a walkover for the rest of the game. But the Retrievers went on a 19-7 run in the first five minutes of the second half to cut the Terrier lead to just five points.

“I was a gut check,” said sophomore point guard Chris De La Rosa who led the team with 18 points and six assists. “We could have just easily given up and called it quits and gone through the motions, but we didn’t and fought.”

After Robbie Jackson made two free throws to cut the Terrier lead to just five, on the ensuing possession John Holland went to the basket and was fouled by the seven-footer, sending him to the line to shoot two. He made both shots, ended UMBC’s run, and took away all the momentum and life UMBC had in them as his two shots started a 17-1 Boston U run over the next five minutes of the game.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” De La Rosa explained. “They made there and we didn’t respond. All we can do is come in tomorrow and practice and watch film.”

While De La Rosa led the team in points, only one other Retriever could get their total into double figures as Chauncey Gilliam had 10 points with five rebounds, four steals and three assists. That guard duo combined for five of the teams their three pointers.

Freshman swingman Adrian Satchell did not score in double figures but had a very solid game with seven points off a 3-9 shooting effort, and 10 rebounds. This season Satchell has started every game and is averaging 6.1 points and 4.5 rebounds. In conference play he has increased both of those totals to 8.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

“Adrian is really developing and really growing,” Monroe said. “Those shots he missed today are shots he usually makes; it just wasn’t his day today. But he gave a tremendous effort and he’s getting better and better. His best days are certainly ahead of him.”

UMBC may not have been expected to contend for a championship this season, but nobody expected a 1-19 record 20 games into the season. But the team is still fighting and giving it everything they have to get wins even though they are not coming.

“These kids could have quit 10 games ago but they didn’t,” Monroe said. “They hang in and fight and keep scrapping. I’m proud of them. Obviously you’d like to have a better record but that will take care of itself in time.

“They’re a competitive group of young men and it does bother them to be in this situation and I wish I had a magic want to sooth some of the ills but this is our team…you take seven new faces, five freshman and I even consider Robbie [Jackson] and Chris [De La Rosa] freshman because they’re new and still figuring out how to play. Chris sat out for a year and Robbie sat out for a year and a half and just started playing basketball when he was in 10th grade. They’re learning and getting better but sometimes you have to go through some Rocky Roads to get where you want to go.”

Despite and 0-7 conference record the Retrievers still have an outside shot at a winning America East record with nine games left but in order to do that, “we have to scrap on everything,” De La Rosa said. “We have to play D, dive for loose balls, everything. We can’t take possessions off and can’t let [opponents] get comfortable. We have to jump on them from the beginning.

“I see improvement but we have to do it at a consistent basis and keep reminding [ourselves] all it takes is one good weekend at the end of the season.”

UMBC returns to action when classes resume on Wednesday, January 27 at 7:00 when they will take on Binghamton, who despite losing their top four scorers from last season, and having six players kicked off the team and replaced by walk-ons, have been a surprise with an 8-13 record, with a recent 73-67 upset of conference leading Vermont.

If you did not know the men’s basketball team’s record before their game against New Hampshire you’d definitely be surprised that the close loss was their 18th of the 19 games plays so far. It was an inspired, hard fought battle that the guys stepped up and did what ever they could do to get a win.

Chauncey Gilliam, Robbie Jackson, and Matt Spadafora showed they are tired of losing and did what ever they could to get a win. Gilliam led the team with 16 points and had five rebounds, Spadafora out-hustled every player on the court to score seven points and get 10 rebounds, seven of which came in the first half, and Jackson was fired up and finally played like the seven-footer that he is to score 13 points.

“He has a swagger about him that he just felt good and I think that’s very important for his development as a player and to me he got better from Monday to today [Thusday] and that’s going to be important as we go along,” said coach Randy Monroe.

Even though they do have one win, this loss was their best performance of the season. They hustled, battled down low, fought for rebounds, and stepped up and played defense. UMBC went into the game with over a minus nine rebound differential and were allowing over 73 points per game. Against New Hampshire they were out-rebounded but only 39-36, and only gave up 62 points.

“I think everyone was tied of getting pounded on the glass these past couple of games so I know even for me I just try and go in extra hard and just set an example and not let a team come in here and own us on the glass,” Spadafora said.

Chris De La Rosa also bounced back from a very sub-par road trip with 10 points and zero turnovers in 27 minutes of running the point.

But being inspired is not everything, UMBC missed three free throws in the final two minutes and in the game they had four pass passes turn into eight New Hampshire points.

“It’s a mental thing. That’s what this game is, it’s 90-percent mental,” Monroe said. “You’ve got to be able to fight through situation…I always tell guys that when you miss that first free throw don’t get emotional about it, examine why you missed it.”

UMBC scored 17 points from the foul line and in the first half shot 90%, but in the second half they struggled and only made 57.1% from the line.

“It’s a big part of the game,” Monroe said. “We spend at least 10 minutes each day shooting them. We ended up shooting well, 71%, in the game but down the stretch it is critical, especially when you’re in a tight game.”

While the pieces seem to be in place for UMBC, they just have not brought everything together and the little things such as, “how you cut off a screen, passing angles to get the ball inside, flair screens to get an open shooter,” as described by Monroe are holding them back from a win.

“We’re not like one of those teams like a couple years ago when we had five guys who could break down players and score,” Monroe said. “We don’t have that many guys this year…it’s about our team getting things done by committee.”

At 1-18 and 0-6 in the conference, the team has not stopped fighting, but do have 10 more games to make a turnaround. With six of those games being in the RAC they still have plenty of time to make a move up the standings in the America East Conference but in order to do that UMBC has to keep improving three areas of their game.

“I think defense and rebounding is something we need to focus on, along with offensive execution, especially down the stretch,” Spadafora said. “If we keep working on those three thing we’ll be all set for the end of the conference [schedule].”

Just two years ago UMBC and Hartford were battling it out in the RAC to claim the America East Conference championship, but how the mighty have fallen. The two conference foes met up for the first time this season, but not for a championship crown, this time it was to stay out of last place in the conference. Going into the game the teams had a combined 3-27 record, and were both severely struggling on the defensive end.

But in a close battle the youth and inexperience of the UMBC basketball team just wasn’t enough to beat the high powered Hawks offense which has four players scoring in double figures, hit eight three pointers and shot 44.4% from the field as UMBC lost the game, 74-68.

“You have to come out and pay with some energy, and enthusiasm, and some passion, and love for the game of basketball,” said coach Randy Monroe. “Hartford was not going to come down and give us a win and until you play with an attitude you’re not going to beat teams you need to beat.”

“We have to do a better job defensively,” Monroe said. “We have to get key stops when we need to get them and that’s been our Achilles’ heal as well as rebounding.”

UMBC was out-rebounded 33-26 and 19-8 on shots they took. They forced Hartford to turn the ball over just nine times, and allowed Hartford to score 15 second chance points.

With the continuous struggles for UMBC this season Monroe has started to adjust his player rotation and even starting lineup in recent games to attempt get a spark out of the team. The most notable change has been Jake Wasco, who made his second straight start over Robbie Jackson. While he only scored two points, he hustled, grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists, had two steals, and blocked a shot.

“Jake’s an aggressive kid [and] plays hard,” Monroe said. “I want Jackson to play hard like that too. [He] will play because he plays aggressive and he plays hard and he’ll get after it. He may not be the most gifted guy but he gives everything he has when he’s out there on the floor. He’s going to get those minutes until somebody proves they are worthy to get them.”

While the defense continued to struggle the offense continued to score enough to win games. Four Retrievers scored in double figures, lead by freshman Adrian Satchell, who scored 16 points while shooting 70% from the field (7-10) and added five rebounds. Chris De La Rosa scored 12 points and Matt Spadafora and Shawn Grant each added 10 points.

“The offense is fine,” Monroe said. “Sixty-eight points is enough to win a college basketball game. We had out chances but we need an attitude, a swagger about us. There’s got to be a toughness factor that we need to compete and we just don’t have that.”

With 13 more games left the team is guaranteed a losing record during the regular season, but all of those games left are against conference opponents, which means the season is far from over, but in order to win Monroe said the team has to do a few simple things.

“We have to block out, we can’t give up second chance stops, and we have to get key stops when we need to get them. It’s not rocket science what we’re doing here but we played with no energy and no enthusiasm at all,” Monroe said.

Despite having four players score in double figures, the men’s basketball team continued on their losing ways this season as they well to pre-season favorites Boston U in a 75-63 road loss.

The Boston three-party of senior Corey Lowe, junior John Holland, and sophomore Jake O’Brien outscored the entire UMBC team as Holland scored 25 points while Lowe and O’Brien scored 20, totaling 65 points between the trio.

While UMBC got off to a hot start, scoring the first seven points of the game, a 16-6 run by the Terriers in the drivers seat for the rest of the game as they did not trail after the first 10 minutes of the game.

In a surprise game-time decision Jake Wasco was called to start his second career game as 7’0” center Robbie Jackson was moved to the bench. Wasco certainly proved for it to be a good move as he recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, both of which are career highs.

Leading UMBC in scoring were guard duo Chris De La Rosa and Chauncey Gilliam, who each scored 13 points. Gilliam recorded the only three three-pointers of the game for UMBC. The fourth Retriever to score in double figures was Adrian Satchell, who scored 10 while shooting 5-of-9 from the field.

The Terriers just had their way with the Retrievers’ perimeter defense as they scored 33 points from three point range, going 11-of-32 (34.4%). The trio of Holland, Lowe, and O’Brien made 10 of those attempts. Holland led the group with five.

At 1-14 the team has certainly struggled, but in all honesty they may just not have the talent to compete this year. The team only has four returning players available, only two of whom saw significant action last season. While one of the freshmen should have the game figured out by now as they have played 15 games, the rebuilding process may take longer than expected. It may be a completely different story next year but as of right now the team is just going through growing pains and fighting to stay out of the bottom of the America East.

They will return to action in just two days when they will take on the 2-13 Hartford Hawks in the RAC on January 14 at 7:00 p.m. Hartford certainly has plenty of experience and a trio of scorers, led by sharp shooting guard Joe Zeglinski who is averaging 15.5 points per game and 3.4 three-pointers per game, but the former UMBC championship opponent has fallen harder than UMBC. They are struggling on the defensive end and have been the worst rebounding team in the conference the last two seasons, but their experience and scoring ability still make them a big threat to any team who plays them.

When a college basketball team scores 71 points in a game it should be enough for them to win the game, but with UMBC that was not the case as their defense continues to struggle.

Though Pennsylvania was better than their 0-10 record going into the game indicated, UMBC should have come away from the game with a win. The Quakers fired their coach and interim coach Jessie Allen was only in charge of his fourth game, they were allowing over 83 points per game, and were not playing well offensively.

While UMBC shot 50% from the field and 53.8% from three point range, their defense just could not stop the Quakers’ offense that also shot 50% from the field, but made 13 three-pointers to UMBC’s six.

“The guys have to understand the importance of the defense and we’re not playing well there right now which is disappointing,” coach Randy Monroe said.

Poor defensive play has been the issue all year for UMBC. They are allowing 73.1 points per game, and teams are shooting 44% against them this season while they are averaging just 60.1 points per game.

“We work on it everyday. It takes commitment. It takes getting into stance and be willing to do it. But evidently these young guys are trying to grasp concepts and understand what it is that we want them to do,” Monroe said.

In the first half only four players found a way to score but Chauncey Gilliam looked to be off to a career day as he scored 16 points before the break. Bur after the break Gilliam was held to just two points which came in the final two minutes of the game.

“We knew he was one of the keys to the game because he’s such an aggressive scorer,” Allen said. “At halftime we talking about making the adjustment of just paying attention to him and I thought all our guys on the perimeter locked on and paid more attention to him.”

Pennsylvania coach Jessie Allen made a defensive switch at half time to double team Gilliam every time his touched the ball. If proved to be effective as he only scored two points in the second half after scoring 16 in the first. [Corey Johns-TRW]

While the rest of the offense continued to struggle in the second half, point guard Chris De La Rosa put the team on his back and did every thing he could to try and win the game. He scored a career high 28 points, made two three’s, had five assists, three rebounds, a steal, and no turnovers.

“Chris did a very good job and his numbers showed it and he’s getting better and better,” Monroe said.

But despite his efforts, the defense allowed Pennsylvania to shoot 60% in the second half and 47 points while they missed just one shot in the final 10 minutes of the game.

“We have to put it all together,” Monroe said. “We have 15 more games to go and they are all league games now and we have to get ready for them.”

In their penultimate non-conference game of the season, four Retrievers scored in double figures. De La Rosa led the team and set multiple career highs with 25 points, more than doubling his previous mark of 12 against Coppin State earlier in the season off an 11-15 performance from the field, which also more than doubled his career high in field goals made. He added seven rebounds, a third career high.

Fellow transfer Robbie Jackson recorded his fourth double-double of the season as he scored 24 points off eight field goals and eight made free throws with 15 rebounds, all of which were career highs.

Sophomore Chauncey Gilliam and freshman Shawn Grant each added 12 points in the effort.

Neither team had any trouble offensively in the first half as the score at intermission was 40-36. UMBC shot an even 60% while the Blue Devils were shooting just over 51% from the field. In the second half neither team found as much success, but as the score indicated, their troubles were even as regulation ended with a score of 66-66.

In the first overtime Grant tied the game with under two minutes left with a three pointer. His 12 points marked his first double digit effort since his 12 point effort in Toledo earlier this month, but it also marked the first game he’s score in since scoring three against Rider.

De La Rosa scored the last six points for UMBC in the second overtime, but after trailing by three with under a minute left UMBC was forced to foul Central Connecticut State each time they had the ball in hope to conserve the clock, but missed three straight shots, putting them behind by five with just six seconds left.

UMBC did manage to make two more baskets in that time span but Central Connecticut State was able to add two more points without the clock running when Joe Seymore made two free throw attempts with just four seconds left to give the Blue Devils a five point advantage.

Though Central Connecticut State came into the game struggling with just a 3-6 record, they were unbeaten in their two home contests this season. Detrick Gym in New Britain, Connecticut has also not been a great place for UMBC as they lost their previous six games there.

While UMBC had four players score at least ten points, Central Connecticut State had five players do so as Robby Ptacek led the way with 23 points, Seymore scored 15, Vince Rosario scored 14, David Simmons scored 13, and Shemik Thompson added 12. Of those five, all but Thompson surpassed their season average.

With the loss UMBC has fallen to 1-11 on the season and will begin conference play on January 2 in Burlington, Vermont against the 9-5 Catamounts. Vermont, who was picked to finish seconds in the pre-season America East Conference coaches poll, is home two the two-time Player and Defensive Player of the Year, Marqus Blakely, who should give UMBC trouble inside as he is averaging 18.7 points per game, 9.0 rebounds per game, 3.1 steals per game, and 2.3 blocks per game.

On the outside, Vermont will rely on former Michigan State guard Maurice Joseph, who is in his second season at Vermont. This season he has worked his way into a starting role and is averaging 14.1 p.p.g. and has made 35 three-pointers in 14 games.

With 1.9 seconds remaining in the game, sophomore point guard Chris De La Rosa pulled up for a left handed jumper to give UMBC a 59-57 victory over American, snapping a nine-game losing streak and giving them their first win of the season.

Just five minutes into the game UMBC was down 14-2 to the Eagles but rallied back and never game up on the game. Eventually, just three minutes into the second half, the Retriever grabbed a hold of the lead and never let American get it back.

De La Rosa, who had a very questionable start to the season and took too many bad shots, has settled down lately and against American scored 11 points, shot 50% from the field, handed out five assists, and grabbed four rebounds in the game. While UMBC has showed a lot of improvement over the course of the season, in the last three games the Retriever have been stopped by injuries. This time both Robbie Jackson and Chauncey Gilliam were fully healthy and the team finally put everything together and got their first win.

While the team was still much smaller than American overall, Jackson, as he usually is, was the biggest player on the court and really improved the struggling defense. American only scored 22 points in the paint and shot just 35.2% from the field as they were unable to get much going inside and attempted 21 shots from outside and they only hit five of them.

Gilliam struggled against Rider with an ankle injury, but looks to be fully healthy as he left all scorers with 17 points while going up to get four rebounds and get two steals. Matt Spadafora also had another solid game as he scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds in the game. He also had two steals and one assists while shooting 65.5% from the field.

Defensively UMBC had their best game of the season and while the bench only provided five points, all of which came from Nick Groce, they did not need to score because of the ball pressure the entire team put on American.

At 0-9 it would be easy for the team to just give up on the season, but UMBC has played very well recently and have showed they can be a factor in the America East Conference, which is wide-open as the rest of the conference has struggled in non-conference play as well, and this time the hard work paid off for their first win.

UMBC will have an extremely tough challenge to get another win in their next game as they will take on the 9-1 Virginia Tech Hokies in just two days on Tuesday, December 22, at 7:00 pm in Blacksburg, Virginia.