BURLINGTON, Vt. – Sunday’s regular season finale didn’t mean anything in the standings or the seeding for the America East Tournament. If you buy into the idea that momentum doesn’t mean anything heading into a conference tournament, then it also meant nothing. But Boston University’s 66-64 overtime win on Senior Day at Vermont means something for a number of reasons.
For one thing, both teams will enter the conference tournament going in opposite directions. Vermont will be the top seed, but the Catamounts will go in having lost consecutive games for the first time all season. Meanwhile, Boston University will be the No. 2 seed after a February in which they went 8-0 for an eight-game winning streak. The Terriers are a relatively young team, but they’re growing up.
“We’re definitely coming together and gelling at the right time,” said junior guard Darryl Partin. “That’s all due to practices, working hard as you can to get better as a team and build chemistry, and it’s paying off.”
The Catamounts, meanwhile, are facing the first adversity all season from the bottom line. They reeled off 10 straight wins after two losses in three games had them at 3-2 in America East play and looking like a team ready to be exposed, as they had a nice non-conference record against a relatively weak schedule. But losing two in three is as bad it has been until now, and as if that’s not enough, the Catamounts were without Brendan Bald (ankle injury) and lost Evan Fjeld on Sunday to a similar injury. The status of both for the conference tournament is unknown, although neither injury is thought to be severe.
Vermont still made a game of it on Sunday after Fjeld went down, but head coach Mike Lonergan said he didn’t think they deserved to win. The Catamounts did enough to send the game into overtime, but were lucky to be there after they had a nine-point lead early in the second half but blew it. They didn’t respond to the in-game adversity as well as they could have, and it leaves the coach with a question going into next weekend.
“I’m not worried about Brian Voelkel and Sandro (Carissimo),” said the Catamount mentor. “I just want to see Matt Glass and Luke (Apfeld) and Garrett (Kissell). Garrett played hard today, he had some rebounds, but he was 1-6. Matt really gave us nothing. We need those guys to react. We need those guys to get focused, the upperclassmen of the team. They’ve been in the tournament before.”
Indeed, Voelkel and Carissimo played well, carrying the offense as the only double-digit scorers and combining for eight assists and two turnovers. Carissimo had a career-high 17 points, leading them in the first half by making all six of his shots. But after that, they didn’t get much at either end aside from a nice effort by Luke Apfeld, who looked like the player he was before being besieged by knee injuries.
The Catamounts hope Bald and Fjeld get healthy, but they have to play better. They let BU out-rebound them at home, and allowed BU to go to the line 35 times. The free throw disparity (Vermont went to the line just 10 times) to a good degree reflects how they teams were playing. There were some questionable calls, but they alone don’t explain it.
“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to put it out of our system,” said Lonergan.
The Terriers won despite not having John Holland, who sprained his ankle in their previous game. One could figure that Partin would carry them, and while he led them with 23 points, he had plenty of help. It mainly came from D.J. Irving, who had 18 points, four assists and no turnovers before fouling out, but Matt Griffin made some key plays and had 13 points, and Dom Morris had 11 rebounds. Irving scored several baskets by blowing right by a defender. That went right to the heart of Vermont’s defensive issues as the help defense wasn’t very good on the day. The play of Holland’s and Partin’s support cast went right to the heart of something the coach talked about.
“I said at halftime when John went down, John’s been carrying us all year long. Let’s pick up for him for once,” said head coach Pat Chambers. “Let’s show everybody that we’re not the John Holland show or the Darryl Partin show or this ‘dynamic duo’ stuff. We’re BU basketball, we’ve got 13 guys playing hard.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Sunday’s result is that Boston University won both games against the Catamounts. With the teams occupying the top two seeds, they could certainly meet once more for all the marbles in the same building they were in on Sunday. Lonergan talked after both games about the Terriers exposing a lot of weaknesses they have, so if they meet again in the title game Catamount fans would have plenty of reasons for concern even though it will be at Patrick Gym.
No one on either squad is looking that far ahead, naturally. Players and coaches all talked about how anything can happen next weekend in Hartford, and momentum doesn’t mean much. Both coaches have had teams reach the championship game when not expected to, so they aren’t just engaging in coach-speak. But if it does come down to that one game, the homecourt advantage could at least be neutralized.
Sunday’s game, to some degree, wasn’t one where you could accurately judge both teams in that neither one was whole. The game didn’t mean anything on the bottom line, although as Chambers correctly noted, both teams wanted to win because there were competitors on the floor and on both benches. But they are the top two teams in the conference, so it’s not entirely meaningless, and for Boston University a lot of things were positive.
