Vermont beats UMBC in America East showdown

Jan 13, 2017, 09:44 pm

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Trae Bell-Haynes scored 20 points and Vermont held off Maryland-Baltimore County 81-72 on Friday night for the Catamounts' sixth consecutive victory.

The game matched two of the three teams unbeaten in America East play and gave Vermont (14-5, 4-0) its 20th straight victory over the Retrievers (12-5, 3-1), who had a three-game win streak broken. The other league unbeaten, Stony Brook (2-0), plays Saturday.

Vermont had a 14-point lead with 12:35 remaining but UMBC cut the lead to two, the final time at 72-70 with 1 1/2 minutes left on Jarius Lyles' floater high off the glass. Bell-Haynes responded with his own floater and after Lyles lost the ball out of bounds, Kurt Steidl caught a long inbounds pass on the run and completed a 3-point play before adding two more free throws for a 79-72 lead with 23 seconds remaining.

Lyles scored 23 points and Will Darley 22 for UMBC.