Vermont 66, MD Baltimore Co 61

Feb 24, 2005, 11:30 pm

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- Taylor Coppenrath scored 18 of his

game-high 30 points in the second half as Vermont overcame UMBC

66-61 Thursday night to give UVM its first-ever outright America

East regular season championship.

Vermont shared the regular season crown in 2001-02.

UMBC (9-17, 4-13) hit six of its first eight three-point

attempts while UVM (21-5, 16-1 America East), one of the top

three-point shooting teams in the country, went 2-for-16 in the

first half. The Retrievers led 40-32 at the break and they

maintained a double-digit lead through much of the second half.

But Vermont's defense and rebounding tightened up, and the

Catamounts, behind Coppenrath and three-pointers by Alex Jensen and

Kyle Cieplicki, took the lead for good with six minutes left.

Coppenrath, the nation's second-leading scorer, went

seven-for-16 from the floor and 16-for-18 from the foul line. T.J.

Sorrentine scored 11 points while Germain Mopa Njila had a

game-high 14 rebounds.

Brian Hodges led four Retrievers in double figures with 13

points. Andrew Feeley, Rashad Bilal and John Zito each chipped in

with 10.