CATONSVILLE, Md. — For the first time since its magical run in 2018, UMBC men’s basketball is heading to the NCAA Tournament.
UMBC defeated Vermont, 74-59, in the America East championship game on March 14, securing the third America East title in program history. The victory also marked the second time the Retrievers have accomplished the feat on their home court, with the other coming in 2008.
UMBC is now 24-8 overall and riding a 12-game winning streak, with those victories coming by an average of 16.8 points — perhaps the best extended stretch in program history. The school now waits to hear its named called on Selection Sunday March 15.
“What a rewarding season that we’ve had because of all of these guys,” said Retrievers fifth-year coach Jim Ferry, referring to all of his players. “The makeup of this group — the unselfishness, the character. We never had a bad day — never. … One of, if not the most enjoyable ride I have ever had. These guys put themselves in the history books of UMBC forever.”
UMBC is going dancing due in large part to the efforts of graduate wing DJ Armstrong Jr., who poured in a career-high 33 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the field (7 of 9 from 3-point range). He scored 17 points in the final 6:04, with his first 3-pointer during that stretch tying the game at 51.
Armstrong made four 3-pointers in crunch time, all of them difficult looks from deep:
Armstrong, a second-team all-conference selection, made two game-winners early in the season against Morgan State and Wagner. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound wing has gone on to average 13.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. The southpaw with a sweet shooting stroke is hitting 42 percent of his shots from deep.
With the UMBC-Vermont matchup resembling a traffic jam in the first half and a football game in the second half, the Retrievers needed someone to hit tough shots to get them to the finish line. Armstrong was up to the task.
“It feels surreal, having everybody crowd around me and stuff and know what I need to do in order to get the win,” Armstrong said. “That’s pretty much what it was about — just find a way to win. All season we’ve been finding ways. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Prior to Armstrong’s takeover, the game was starting to teeter for UMBC. A 3-pointer by fifth-year guard Cougar Downing had put the Retrievers up, 44-37, with 12:50 left in regulation, but Vermont responded with a 14-4 run. Ferry took a timeout with less than seven minutes left as the Catamounts threatened to take over the game.
The game had turned quite physical, with Vermont’s defense disrupting UMBC’s typically free-flowing offense. The Retrievers shot 41.2 percent from the field for the game and only assisted on 6 of 21 made baskets.
“To be quite honest, we did not play well today,” Ferry said. “You’ve got to give credit to Vermont. They guarded us. They switched up. For a team that’s been the most dynamic offensive team in the league, we didn’t play great offensively today. … When we got down, with 6:51 to go we took the timeout. These guys didn’t flinch. We just talked about getting more connected, get stops and let’s keep playing off each other and move it. To their credit, they did.”
And then Armstrong took over. The home crowd of 4,753 — a UMBC men’s basketball record at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena — helped, too.
“The crowd got me into it. I think that’s what made me keep being aggressive and stuff,” Armstrong said. “Just to have everybody just show up and show out and be loud, it meant everything.”
UMBC won a combined 24 games in the two seasons prior to this one. Ferry made adjustments in the offseason, from the roster to the style of play, and it all started to come together in a big way in early February. One of the holdovers from the past two years is junior point guard Ace Valentine, who opted to stay after a tough meeting with Ferry after last season.
March 14 marked the big payoff for Valentine, a native of Columbia and graduate of Mount Saint Joseph.
“It’s amazing. Obviously, I live 15 minutes away, so I have all my family and supporters here to watch me compete for a championship,” Valentine said. “The first year we were the seventh seed and last year we were the eighth seed. Just to have a big turnaround like that and be able to do something like this, especially with this group of guys, it means everything to me.”
The win was even sweeter for UMBC because it came against Vermont, which has gone to the NCAA Tournament six times under John Becker and historically represents the standard in the America East.
“To be quite honest with you guys, we wanted to play Vermont because to be the best you’ve got to beat the best, and we did that,” Ferry said. “We talked about it earlier in the year. I said, ‘It’s going to come down to us two,’ and it did.”
Photo Credit: Luke Jackson/PressBox