Vermont takes America East title with win over BU

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Burlington, VT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marqus Blakely scored 24 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and handed out five assists, leading Vermont back to the NCAA Tournament with an 83-70 victory over Boston University in the championship game of the America East Tournament.

Nick Vier added 15 points and Maurice Joseph chipped in 13 for Vermont (25-9), which captured its fourth AEC championship and first since a three-year run from 2003-05. The Catamounts' last NCAA Tournament appearance was a memorable one in 2005, as they upset Syracuse in the first round before falling to Michigan State.

Corey Lowe scored 24 points to lead Boston University (19-13), which knocked off top-seeded Stony Brook last Sunday in the semifinals and was making its first visit to the AEC title game since a 56-55 loss to Vermont in 2003. The Terriers last won the tournament in 2002.

John Holland, BU's leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, made just 3-of-11 shots and finished with only nine points. Jake O'Brien contributed 17 points in defeat.

Vermont led by 11 at the break and a bucket to open the second half stretched the margin to 13, but BU scored six straight at one point to trim a 12-point deficit in half and drew within 54-53 with 11 minutes left on a three-pointer by Lowe.

The Terriers then had two possessions with a chance to take the lead and failed to convert either time, and Vermont capitalized with a layup by Evan Fjeld and a three-pointer by Joseph for a six-point edge with just under eight minutes to play.

Blakely hit a pair from the stripe to extend the lead to 61-53, but BU trimmed the margin back to four at 62-58 before going cold again. Vier and Garvey Young connected on three-pointers to fuel a 9-2 run that gave Vermont a 71-60 lead with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

The Terriers never threatened again.

Vermont extended a three-point edge with a run of seven straight points midway through the opening half, as Vier hit a three-pointer and Blakely scored the next four for a 24-14 lead.

The Terriers got as close as six a couple of times before Vermont took a 42-31 advantage to the intermission after a Blakely bucket in the lane just before the buzzer.

Game Notes

Blakely, the conference's Player of the Year each of the two previous seasons, recorded his 17th double-double of the campaign...Fjeld, playing just days after his mother died of cancer, scored nine for Vermont...The Catamounts shot 57.8 percent overall and connected on 8-of-14 three-point tries, led by Vier's 4-for-4 effort from beyond the arc...The Terriers hit 38.2 percent from the field and made 10-of-23 from three-point range...BU has won five AEC tourney crowns, the most of any current member of the league. Northeastern, currently a member of the CAA, won seven AEC titles.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.