BOSTON, MA - The fifth-seeded Maine Black Bears upset the top-seeded Vermont Catamounts 61-59 in overtime in the semifinals of the America East Championship on Sunday at Matthews Arena.

Maine will play at second-seed Boston University for the championship on Saturday March 9.

Trailing 51-49, Maine's senior Errick Greene (Kileen, TX) hit a runner in the lane with six seconds to play in regulation to tie the score and send the game into overtime.

In overtime, Vermont's Trevor Gaines (Farmington Hills, MI) hit a shot from the low post to open the scoring. But Maine scored the next seven points to take control. The Black Bears led the rest of the way. Fredd Petkus (Plunge, Lithuania) knocked down a three and Clayton Brown (Palmura, NJ) made a pair of baskets for the 58-53 Maine lead. Gaines then made another shot from the left block and T.J. Sorrentine (Pawtucket, RI) converted two free throws to bring the Catamounts within one, 58-57 with 54 seconds left in overtime. But Brown hit two free throws for the Black Bears and after a Sorrentine drive for UVM, Todd Tibbetts (Windsor, ME) made one of two free throws for the final 61-59 score. Vermont had a couple of chances to tie the score, but Sorrentine missed a drive to the hoop and Grant Anderson’s (Minnetonka, MN) tip bounced out of the rim. Vermont had one last shot with one second left, but David Hehn (Sarnia, ONT) was wide with his three-point attempt as the buzzer sounded.

Derrick Jackson (Columbia, SC) was the leading scorer for Maine with 13 points while Brown added 12. Justin Rowe (Springfield, MA) had nine points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and three assists. For Vermont, Gaines led the way with 20 points and 12 rebounds while Anderson had 13 points and 11 boards. Maine did a great job on Vermont's two conference award winners. Sorrentine, the America East Player of the Year, finished with 12 points, but shot just 4-21 from the field (1-8 from three) and had three turnovers. Taylor Coppenrath, the conference Rookie of the Year, had just seven points on 3-13 shooting.

Maine led for all but one possession for the first 26 minutes of the game. The lead for the Black Bears grew as large as 10 points, 33-23, after a drive by Jackson with 18:08 left in the second half.

But the Catamounts mounted a comeback, going on a 16-0 run to turn the 10-point deficit into a six-point advantage with 10:48 left in the game. Gaines had six points on the run and Sorrentine had five. When Coppenrath knocked down a three-pointer with 9:31 remaining, Vermont had built a 44-35 lead.

Maine, however, came fighting right back. Jackson nailed back-to-back three-pointers to first tie the game at 46 and then give the Black Bears a 49-46 advantage with 4:11 left. Anderson then tipped in a Gaines miss and Gaines knocked down a jumper and one of two free throws for a 51-49 Vermont lead with 29 seconds to play.

The Black Bears, who knocked off the four-seed New Hampshire yesterday, was the only team in the tournament to defeat a higher-seed.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Maine’s Head Coach John Giannini
“This just isn’t another win for us, this is a big step forward for our program, and it happened during a year that has been extremely difficult. We’ve lost key players, we’ve been undermanned, we have only two players with any experience and it’s hurt us to not be as successful as what we’re accustomed to. But this is what happened, we absolutely would not lower our goals. Over time these guys just dug, they let me push them and push them some more so that they’d be able to win a game like this.”

“We were the tougher team today, not by much, not by a whole lot, but we were tough enough to make an extra play here and there.”

“ These guys, I just can’t say enough about them. It’s been a difficult year, they’ve been pushed very hard, they’ve had to persevere, they haven’t had a lot of success during the regular season and yet they kept themselves pushing and now here we are. But, we knew we were capable of being here and we know we are capable of being even more.”

“Sometimes with those late game shots, it’s not necessarily who’s the best shooter but who’s got the poise and the experience and the desire to take the shot and that describes Derrick (Jackson) very well.”

“I don’t know his (Tom Brennan’s) players, I respect them a lot, but I know coach Brennan pretty well. He was the first coach to congratulate me on getting the job at Maine, he was the first coach to invite me out and spend time together and he and his wife Lynn are wonderful people, so I feel very badly for him. But I’m more happy for me and I know he would be the same.”

Maine’s #42 Errick Greene
“We’ve had expectations from the jump. Our goals have been the same since we’ve been winning, since we’ve been losing,,to win the America East Championship and go to the NCAA tournament. I mean, we’re talented, we’re just young and we’ve had a lot of bad things go wrong this year, but we just knew in the bottom of our hearts that we weren’t going to lose.”

“ This is my last go-around and I’m not ready to go home, I’m not ready to go for that spring break yet.”

Maine’s #35 Derrick Jackson
“I felt confident all game and coach told me that we were going to have to knock down shots when we couldn’t make moves inside and when they double team Justin (Rowe) and Clayton (Brown) inside or Errick (Greene). When they get a kick out, we got to knock it down and make them pay for doubles, and that’s just the game plan.”

“T.J. Sorrentine, he’s a great player, probably one of the best I’ve guarded this year. I know that, so I just try to get theball out of his hands and once the ball is out of his hands, I try to make him work to get it back. Whatever he does he’s got to work to get a shot off and I just make him work and work all game and that just seemed to work for me so I just stayed with it.”

“The game was on the line and I knew we were going to win this game. I told the guys before the game that we were going to win this game, we were confident in doing that and we’ve worked hard and fought through adversity throughout the season and this is just another game we needed to win, and if we were going to win this game, I needed to knock down my shots. That was on my shoulders.”

Vermont Head Coach Tom Brennan
“Obviously I am feeling very melancholy. I love my team, I love how they never quit. The two stars went 7-34, yet we never went away. We really had the game won a couple different times. But I really tip my hat to Maine. They made three’s, they made a lot of big shots. They made the shot to tie the game, and we had the ball but it slipped out of our hands and we turned it over. You know, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes it gets you. This team has been so wonderful that I am absolutely crushed, crushed. I love their effort, I love their demeanor. I love the individuals and how they have handed themselves all year. I never thought for one second, one second that we were going to lose. You tip your hat to the team you beat you and you go from here. In a week, or couple days when we can look back at the year and look at the things we have done, it will be a very positive experience.”

“It is very hard to go from an 11 win team to a championship team, I have said it all along. We have made a giant step, and obviously we are all let down, we wish it would have been different, but he is a great coach and really does a good job with his team, and that is that.”

“We just missed a couple rebounds that would have gave us the game. Our stars labored, but they are going to have days like that, and you have to live with it. One is a sophomore and another is a freshman, so we will be fine. It hurts so much because these guys are so classy. Trevor just lead us every day and Grant is a soldier. I don’t think I will ever coach a team again that I will be as fond of.”

“When these guys come back for their five year reunion, they will be the best team that Vermont has ever had, and that is what we will remember today.”

“I ache for TJ, he is a great little guy. He can shoot anytime he wants to on my team, he is my boy. I know how hard he works and how much he wants to win. Its pressure, and he will learn to get through it, but he is young.”

“I really thought that this would have been a steal if we did come away with it.”

Vermont’s #35 Trevor Gaines
“Against Rowe, basically I just took it right too him. Coach told us don’t back down from him, so I just used my quickness.”

“We always feel confident, we always feel like we have a chance, never a doubt in our mind. But we just came up a little short, a little bad luck. Things happen for a reason and then you move on.”

Vermont’s #42 Grant Anderson
“We started off a little shaky in the first half, but then we settled down right away. Both teams were just battling. We were confident, knowing that we were in good position at the half.”