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.

“I’d have to lie if I say it didn’t hurt but everybody is being positive,” said Matt Spadafora. “We still have 20 games left and there is a lot of basketball to be played. It hurts right now but we’re going through from adverse situations but it’s only going to help us in the end.”

While they lost their final home game of 2009 to Rider, 79-67, the team played their best game of the season. While the team was without 7’0” center Robbie Jackson, who missed his second straight game with an ankle injury, and had a injured Chauncey Gilliam limited with time because of an ankle injury, the team was just outmatched but the Broncs who used their big size advantage on UMBC to get things going inside.

UMBC shot an astounding 50% from the field and hit just on less three-pointer than Rider, but once again the defense did not play well as they allowed their opponents to scored 79 points and also shoot 50% from the field.

“On the defensive side we just have to do a better job overall as a team,” said Matt Spadafora. “If one guy gets beat we have to have guys slide over and step up. Then to finish we have to rebound and keep guys off the glass.”

With Jackson out of action, and Gilliam playing with an ankle injury, Spadafora stepped up and played on of his best games of his career as he scored 16 points with a career high nine rebounds.

“I was really proud of Matt. He really stepped up and made some key baskets, played hard, and gutted it out,” said coach Randy Monroe.

Two other Retrievers finished the games in double digits in scoring, freshman Adrian Satchell, who scored 10 points, and sophomore Chris De La Rosa, who scored 11 points with five assists and three rebounds.

Because of the injuries Gilliam came off the bench, and filling to two gaps in the starting lineup were Shawn Grant, who made his second straight start, and Nick Groce. Whiel Grant struggled to get anything going as he scored just three points, Groce excelled both defensively and offensively. He scored eight points, went perfect from the field, and missed just one free throw.

Also because of the injuries, Bakari Smith, Brian Neller, and Jake Wasco all saw significant minutes off the bench. Smith went 2-2 from the floor for four points while Neller, who hit two threes, and Wasco, each scored six points.

“I think these guys are definitively growing,” Monroe said. “They are very coachable and they have a very bright future. They have a chance to be very good, but they are learning what college basketball is all about now. It’s a true lesson but it’s something I think that will make them very good players down the road.”

With that 0-9 record, the team has just three more games before beginning conference play. All three games are on the road and after a conference challenge at Vermont, they return to the RAC for one final tune-up game against Pennsylvania.

“Each game we just want to get better as a team,” Spadafora said. “Once conference starts our team is going to be rolling and we hopefully will be coming up on the other side of these games.”

Ten minutes into the game that number went down even more when leading scorer Chauncey Gilliam was taken out of the game with a sprained ankle and did not return.

With the injuries UMBC was left with eight players, only one of whom was taller than 6’5″. That lack of players and size did not add up for a victory over the Nittany Lions, who had the size, depth, and talent to outmatch any set of players UMBC put on the court.

For the majority of the game UMBC ran a five guard set with six players: Chris De La Rosa, Shawn Grant, Matt Spadafora, Brian Neller, Adrian Satchell, and Nick Groce.

De La Rosa and Neller led the team with 10 points each. De La Rosa also matched his season average, dishing out six assists, while adding four steals. Neller stole three Penn State possessions but more importantly scored two of UMBC’s four three-pointers. The other two were from Groce who scored six points. Grant and Satchell also scored six points while Satchell grabbed a team high five rebounds.

As fatigue set in down the stretch the offense failed to get going and only shot 32.11% from the field and 18.2% from three-point range in a 42 point effort.

But defensively UMBC played their best game of the season. While they have given up 74.1 points per game, they held Penn State to just 58 points.

With the five guards in a 2-3 zone the Nittany Lions shot poor from the field, going just 39.1% from the field and 19.0% from three-point range.

For the first half of action UMBC kept the game close. They went into the intermission down just four points, but could not hold up the effort and were outscored 31-19 in the second half.

UMBC is now 0-8 and will take on Rider on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

While Robbie Jackson led the team in both points and rebounds for a second straight game with 13 and seven respectively.  He also blocked two James Madison shots.  He only played 19 minutes due to foul trouble.  If UMBC wants to be successful he absolutely has to stay in the game.  It will come in time because he has only played five games in over a year, but he has to stop the early fouls, and quick.

Other than Jackson having his time limited, there was very little rotation.  The other four starters all saw at least 31 minutes of action, and only three reserves were called upon.

As for the starters, Adrian Satchell was second on the team with 10 points in 31 minutes of action as he went 4-5 from the field and 2-2 from the charity stripe.

Matt Spadafora and Chauncey Gilliam each addedd nine points and six rebounds.  Gilliam also had three assists and two steals.

De La Rosa only managed two points in 34 minutes but he took care of the ball well as he had three assists and just two turnovers while stealing two balls from the Dukes.

Only three players saw time off the bench.  Shawn Grant led the bench with seven points and five rebounds while Nick Groce added two points and two assists.  Jake Wasco say 14 minutes of action and grabbed four rebounds and recorded a block but did not score in the game.

It was a very sloppy game.  Neither team shot the ball well at all as James Madison shot 36% from the field and UMBC shot just 31%.  While both teams had 18 made field goals, and UMBC outrebounded James Madison 41-32, and caused more turnovers, what won the game for James Madison was three pointers.  While they missed 17 shots, they made eight, six more than UMBC, and in a close game that was ultimately the difference in the game that dropped UMBC to a 0-5 start.

While still in quest of their first win, the Retrievers will take part in their second of four straight road games as they will travel north on I-95 to take on local rival Towson on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.