WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Cats Go Dancing....Again

Cats Go Dancing....Again

BURLINGTON, VT. --- Saturday, March 13th

A record-high 43 points by Taylor Coppenrath and stifling defense lifted Vermont to their second straight America East Men's Basketball Championship with a 72-53 over Maine in front of 3,228 at Patrick Gym Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Vermont's school-record 22nd of the season, the Catamounts (22-8) earn an automatic bid for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. They will know where and who they will play Sunday at 6:00pm when the selections are announced on CBS.

Coppenrath, the Kevin Roberson America East Player of the Year who had not played for seven games due to a broken bone in his left wrist, went 14-for-19 from the floor, 14-for-15 from the foul line and had a game-high 13 rebounds.

He topped his career-high (41) set January 8th in a win over Northeastern and established a new single-game conference tournament scoring record. The previous record was 40 points by Boston U.'s Tony Decosta in 1989 and Vermont's Joe Calavita in 1987.

Coppenrath, who won the Reggie Lewis Award as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, shattered the title game record of 32 points set back in 1996 and 1982. "I said to the guys at halftime, Taylor has 28 and they have 23," commented an elated Vermont coach Tom Brennan. "Is there a message there? Our guys respond so well in these situations so we were not rattled. This win means so much to the university, the community and the whole state of Vermont. It's real nice for us to give something back."

The atmosphere at Patrick Gym was like no other sporting event ever held in the state. The Vermont-based rock band Phish sang the national anthem and the crowd, UVM's fifth sellout of the season, roared like jet engines for most of the game. The fans were treated to a brilliant performance by Coppenrath and Vermont's team defense that allowed only 50.3 points per game over the three-game tournament. Coppenrath, who also set a tourney record with 14 free throws, led an outstanding effort from the line as the team went 22-for-24.

In their last two games Vermont hit 40-of-45 free throw attempts. "Coppenrath was amazing- he made everything look so easy," noted Maine coach John Giannini. "That's my fault, too. If I thought he could play like that after four weeks off, I would have doubled him the whole game."

After the Black Bears took an early 10-8 lead, Coppenrath scored seven and Germain Njila had five in a 12-0 UVM run over three minutes. Maine would cut it to 22-18 with 8:29 to go in the half before Vermont, and Coppenrath, would deliver the knockout blow. The 6-foot-9 junior would finish the first half with 28 as the Catamounts would take a 40-23 lead into the locker room.

Several times after the break the Black Bears would threaten but cut it to single digits just once, 49-41 with 11:47 left. Coppenrath closed out his line with a tip-in with 50 seconds to go and senior Corey Sullivan finished an alley-oop for the exclamation point with 16 seconds left.

Njila, who had 13 points going eight-for-eight from the line, and T.J. Sorrentine joined Coppenrath on the All-Championship team. Sorrentine was the team's leading scorer in Coppenrath's absence and had six points and five assists in the title game while playing a solid two-way floor game. Freshman Martin Klimes added five points and seven boards.

Vermont out-rebounded Maine, 39-33, and limited them to just 34% from the floor for the game, just 14% from beyond the arc.

The Black Bears were led by All-Championship selection Eric Dobson who nearly had a triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and a game-high eight assists. Joe Campbell added 10 points and seven boards. Tough UVM defense limited sharp-shooting Kevin Reed to three-for-18 from the floor and 0-for-8 from three-point range. Maine finishes the season at 20-10, the school's second-ever 20 win season.