The University at Albany men’s basketball team ended its season Tuesday night with a 79-61 loss at Vermont.
“We gave ourselves a chance, and we just believed. We kept believing till the time ran out, and you can’t ask for more from a team within our position,” senior forward Gerald Drumgoole Jr. said.
The Great Danes (8-23, 3-13 America East) missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014-15, when the America East started eliminating the worst regular-season team.
Had UAlbany beaten Vermont (20-10, 14-2), they would have made the playoffs. The Great Danes also needed an NJIT loss to New Hampshire, which they got.
The Catamounts had already clinched the regular-season title but were playing in front of a raucous Senior Night crowd.
“We got frustrated and we kind of unraveled, and that’s what really good teams do with a really good program and a really good culture. I thought their winning ways kind of broke us down,” UAlbany coach Dwayne Killings said.
Vermont built a 15-point lead in the first half, going 10-for-18 from 3. UAlbany got back within eight early in the second half on an 8-0 run featuring 3s from fifth-year guard Sarju Patel and Drumgoole. Fifth-year guard Dylan Penn got to the line and made both free throws to put Vermont back up by 11, Finn Sullivan added to the lead, stripping Patel for a fastbreak layup, and Robin Duncan converted a three-point play on a putback to cap the 7-0 Catamounts run.
“I thought we ran out of gas,” Killings said. “We really wore down, because I thought the energy and the intensity we needed to bring, without question it was there early, and then I thought we broke down.”
UAlbany’s last gasp came with just less than 10 minutes to play, when senior guard/forward Trey Hutcheson drained a 3 to start an 8-2 run that closed the deficit to 11…
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