Getty Arkel Lamar and the UMBC Retrievers are seeking a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Vermont Catamounts will host the UMBC Retrievers at Patrick Gymnasium for the America East Tournament championship game on Saturday.
The game is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN2. But if you don’t have cable, you can still watch a live stream of ESPN2 on your computer, phone or streaming device via one of the following live-TV streaming services:
PlayStation Vue: PS Vue–which doesn’t require an actual PlayStation console to sign up or watch–offers four different live-TV channel packages: All four include ESPN2.
You can start a free 5-day trial of PS Vue right here (select “Start Streaming” in the upper-right corner), and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the PS Vue website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation (3 or 4), or other supported device via the PS Vue app.
Hulu With Live TV: In addition to a Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu also offers a bundle of 50-plus live TV channels, including ESPN2.
You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Echo Show, or other streaming device via the Hulu app.
Sling TV: ESPN2 is included in the “Sling Orange” channel bundle.
You can start a free seven-day trial right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the Sling TV app.
UMBC vs Vermont Preview
The Retrievers, who made history last season as the first ever No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed (the Virginia Cavaliers) in the NCAA Tournament, went 11-5 in the America East regular season (21-12 overall) for the third seed in the conference tourney.
They topped the sixth-seeded Albany Great Danes in the opening round, then needed double overtime to squeak past the No. 3 Hartford Hawks in the semifinals.
UMBC led by 50-24 early in the second half before a furious Hawks comeback.
“When you have a big lead like that, quite honestly, we’re not a team that’s used to playing with huge leads like that,” UMBC head coach Ryan Odom said, according to The Baltimore Sun. “We haven’t had many of those where we’ve run away a little bit. So it was an unfamiliar position for us — certainly for me as a coach and for these guys as well. We’re used to playing in tight games. Eventually, it did become tight, and we got more comfortable, ironically.”
Junior guard KJ Jackson led the Retrievers with 21 points. Graduate student forward Joe Sherburne, the team’s leader in points per game at 14.1, finished three assists short of a triple-double: 12 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, and a pair of steals while playing a team-high 47 minutes.
“We were saying the right things in the huddles,” Sherburne said, per The Baltimore Sun. “We were trying to stay positive. It didn’t really work out that way. We didn’t let ourselves feel tired. I felt at one point, I was thinking about my legs and how I couldn’t really feel them, but Coach told me I wasn’t tired, too.”
The Catamounts won the regular season title with a 14-2 mark (26-6 overall), then pounded the eighth-seeded Maine Black Bears and the No. 7 Binghamton Bearcats en route to the finals.
In the semifinals, sophomore guard Stef Smith dropped a career-high 28 points as UVM shot 58.2 percent from the field and 56 percent from the 3-point line, assisting 20 times with just seven turnovers against the Bearcats.
“We are going to feel proud about this effort … but we have to get right back to work because we are going to play a good team on Saturday and we have 40 minutes to go to finish this off,” UVM head coach John Becker said, according to The Burlington Free Press. “I don’t want to get too high right now. We have to make sure we stay humble, keep our nose down and prepare and execute like we did tonight and let it fly on Saturday.”