The top seeded Vermont Catamounts will look to go unblemished in conference play when they take on the Albany Great Danes in the America East Tournament championship game. The latter will be looking to punch its ticket back to the NCAA Tournament after a year hiatus, while the latter will be looking to return for the first time since 2012. These teams partook in a pair of low scorers in the regular season. That didn’t work for the Great Danes. They’ll need to score the basketball to have a shot at ending the Catamounts 20-game win streak.
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The Great Danes had failed to cover their only three lined games heading into the America East Tournament. They’ll enter the finals 2-3 against the spread after getting the job done against both Hartford and Stony Brook. The tilt versus the Hawks was a breeze with Albany cruising to the 100-71 win as 15 point favorites. Will Brown’s squad being favored at Stony Brook came as a surprise with the Great Danes dropping both regular season meetings, but it didn’t matter with the team logging the impressive 63-56 win and cover as 2.5 point favorites.
What else can you say about Vermont except that it’s a special team? To go undefeated in league play is a feat in and of itself. To win all but four of those games by double-digits is simply dominating! Both Maine and New Hampshire felt the wrath in the first two rounds with each logging a grand total of 41 points. The Catamounts went on to score 86 and 74 respectively to cover both games with ease. They’ll enter the title game 4-3 against the spread overall and 3-2 when laying points with the under cashing in five of the seven games.
Players to Watch
If you plan on testing the water by backing the dog in this contest, you’re going to want to keep an eye on the Great Danes’ guard duo of Joe Cremo and David Nichols. These two are pretty much all the team brings to the table offensively. The latter leads the team in scoring with 18.1 points per game, while the latter checks in right behind him with 16.2. Cremo is also one of the team’s better rebounders that averages 5.3 per game. Nichols enters this tilt red hot after going for 40 points against Hartford, and then following it up with a team-high 19 in the road win at Stony Brook. Each must bring their “A” game if Albany is to go dancing.
Last Meeting
These teams met at the end of February in this very same venue. Albany took a 27-24 lead with it into the break, but wore down in the second half in allowing Vermont to outscore them by 15 to pull out the 62-50 triumph. The Great Danes were extremely efficient offensively in knocking down half of their 42 shots which included a 7 of 13 showing from long range, but 13 turnovers and the inability to get to the foul line proved to be their demise.
This game marks the first time these rivals will have squared off in the conference tournament since 2014 when Albany scored the 67-58 outright win and cover as 7 point home dogs. The combined 125 points just went over the 124 point closing total.
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The Great Danes are playing with house money right now having just gone into the No. 2 seeds house and upsetting them to avenge two earlier season losses. This will mark Albany’s fourth trip to the America East Tournament finals in the last five seasons. All the pressure will be on the league standout to perform and take grasp of the auto bid to the Big Dance it most certainly earned in the regular season.
Coach Brown is a perfect 5-0 versus Vermont in the league tournament and 2-0 in championship games. For that streak to remain intact, he’ll need his kids to get into the 60s and value their possessions of the basketball. Vermont is most definitely going to be tough to rattle with it routinely taking care of the basketball, being extremely efficient offensively and having the better of the two defenses. Albany however is the better rebounding team and it’s already experienced one half of success at Vermont earlier this season. If it can put two halves like that together, there’s not a doubt in my mind that it can hang throughout and have a shot at pulling the upset.
College Basketball Odds: Albany 62, Vermont 61
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