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.

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.

UMBC kept the game close very early by fell behind by 11 points in the first half when Robbie Jackson, Adrian Satchell, and Shawn Grant were all seated with two fouls early in the game. When that happened neither side of the floor could get things going to UMBC. Chauncey Gilliam scored 13 points and shot 50% from the field for the Retrievers but was met with a constant double team because of the lack of offensive options UMBC had available.

Defensively, UMBC was forced to switch out of their 2-3 zone that was working very effectively because they did not have the inside presence needed to keep the ball on the outside.

The 2-3 zone of the Retrievers kept them in the game for the early part because Vermont was forced to take three-point shots where were not falling. After both Jackson and Satchell were put on the bench the Catamounts worked the ball inside and took advantage of the lack of size on the court for UMBC.

UMBC trailed by 11 points at intermission but when those three players; Jackson, Satchall, and Grant, all made it back on the floor in the second half, UMBC managed to cut the Vermont lead to just five points with 10 minutes remaining in the game, but all three players picked up another early foul, and Jackson eventually fouled out, allowing Vermont to go on a 21-8 run over the next seven minutes, putting the game out of reach for UMBC.

Despite only playing 23 minutes, Jackson led UMBC with 15 points. Satchell recorded an impressive six points and five rebounds for the 16 minutes he was in, and Grant scored nine points and shot 50% from the field in just 19 minutes.

While UMBC may have lost their conference opener by 15 points to the team with the best overall record in the conference, they showed they have the ability to be a little bit of a factor in the America East if they keep players out of foul trouble and have other good scoring options on the floor to open up Chauncey Gilliam.

The Retriever will have a slight break from conference play as they return home on January 6 to play their final non-conference game of the season against the winless Ivy League team Pennsylvania at 7:30.

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.

“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.