By DJ Harding –
For the University of Vermont Catamounts after winning the American East Conference championship versus UMass Lowell. The Catamounts punched their tickets into March Madness.
Vermont would enter the dance as a 15th seed in the East portion of the bracket and be matched up against the Marquette Golden Eagles who were winners of the Big East Conference.
The odds were stacked against Marquette as only 11 15th seeds have won in history. The most recent being the University of Princeton who upset two seed Arizona Thursday afternoon.
Another recent 15th seed to win was St.Peters last year who beat number two Kentucky.
Both of those were from New Jersey which might be the reason why Vermont didn’t have the same fate as Marquette.
Vermont would score the first basket of the game and lead 2-0 but that would be Vermont’s only lead of the game.
Marquette would lead early and hold that for the rest of the game. They would lead 39-30 at halftime and would go on to win 78-61.
The Golden Eagles leading scorers were Kam Jones who scored 19 points, Oso Ighodaro with 14 points, and David Joplin added 12 points of his own.
The Catamounts top scorers were Matt Veretto, Dylan Penn, and Robin Duncan who all each scored 11 points.
For Vermont this is the end of the road, while Marquette will advance to the round of 32 and will face Michigan St for a spot in the sweet 16.
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