Coppenrath gets 43 as Cats stop Bears

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BURLINGTON, Vt. – John Giannini, the University of Maine men’s basketball coach was expecting a solid effort out of Vermont’s Taylor Coppenrath.

Coppenrath, who was coming off a four-week layoff due to a broken wrist, figured he’d start, log some spot duty, and see how it went.

Vermont head coach Tom Brennan expected his junior forward to make a difference.

What they saw was a record-breaking performance.

The guy Giannini calls a 6-foot-9, 245-pound “genetic anomaly” simply took over the game from the outset, outscored the entire Maine team 28-23 in the first half, and finished with an America East tournament- and championship-record 43 points. That was more than good enough to lead the 22-8 Catamounts to their second straight AE title with a decisive 72-53 victory Saturday afternoon at Patrick Gymnasium.

“To do that after four weeks … No one would have ever dreamed it,” Giannini said. “I’ll wish all season I would have just put two people on him from the start. If I had the foresight to think he could play like that, we would have, and the game probably would have been competitive.

“I was so confident in our defensive ability and David’s [Dubois’] ability to defend … If I’d known anybody outside the NBA could score 28 points on us in the half, I would have done it from the get-go. I mean, are you kidding me?”

Coppenrath’s presence was bad enough for Maine, but the 20-10 Black Bears’ woes were compounded by the absence of 6-10 forward and second team all-conference pick Mark Flavin, who was hobbled by a strained calf. The 6-9 Dubois started in his stead, but used up three fouls trying to guard Coppenrath in the first 17 minutes. Flavin came off the bench seven minutes into the game, but was ineffective. He had two turnovers, two fouls, and no points in just four total minutes.

“Maine had a bad break today because Flavin couldn’t play. Down here two weeks ago, he really hurt us,” said Brennan. “We got a good break because What’s-His-Name could play.”

What’s His Name will never have to worry about name recognition in Vermont again.

“He’s a rock star,” Brennan joked.

Coppenrath said he didn’t think of himself that way and didn’t think he’d be touring with Phish, whose Vermont-based band members sang Saturday’s National Anthem. Brennan countered, “Yeah, but you know he’d be invited on stage if he wanted to go.”

Despite missing a month of action, participating in only two practices, and playing with a wrist wrapped to protect his scaphoid bone, Coppenrath hit 14 of 19 shots from the field on everything from bank shots to a virtually indefensible sky hook accurate from 10-12 feet away.

The AE tourney MVP also nailed 14 of 15 foul shots and led the team with 13 rebounds, three steals, a block, and 39 minutes played. Guess the wrist didn’t bother him much.

“There were only a couple times when I got it banged or something and it bothered me, but I had no real long-lasting pain, which was good,” said the AE tourney MVP. “I was cramping up in my calves every once in awhile and my back was tightening up, though. It was nice to have some long TV timeouts.”

Meanwhile, Maine’s normally sharp shooters were anything but. Vermont’s man-to-man defense hounded the Bears all game long and limited them to 34.6 percent shooting in the first half, 33.3 in the second, and 33.9 for the game – 10.8 percentage points lower than Maine’s per-game average this season.

Junior forward Germain Njila (13 points, five rebounds, three assists) explained Vermont’s defensive intensity as yet another by-product of (surprise) Coppenrath’s presence.

“I looked at it as a bonus if he came back and what a bonus we got,” Njila said. “He makes things so much easier. You don’t have to worry about offense, you just throw the ball inside and he just goes. We just focused more on defense.”

That defense held Kevin Reed, Maine’s leading scorer, to nine points on 3-for-16 shooting.

“I just felt like I didn’t really get too many clear looks today. I felt like I forced too many shots and … you know … What can you say?” said Reed, who led the team with four steals and grabbed nine rebounds.

Bangor’s Joe Campbell can say “Wow” after having to guard Coppenrath much of the game.

“He uses his body to get position and it’s tough to fight around,” said Campbell, who managed to get 10 points and seven rebounds. “He’s a very difficult matchup for anybody.”

Senior point guard Eric Dobson led the Bears with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in his UMaine finale.

After watching Vermont go on a 12-0 run to take the lead for good midway through the first half, the Bears were able to get as close as four points minutes later, but 10 unanswered Vermont points and an 18-5 run put Vermont up 17 at the half.

Freshman forward Olli Ahvenniemi sparked a 10-1 Maine run with six straight points and helped shrink the deficit to eight with 11:46 left, but a T.J. Sorrentine 3-pointer all but iced things as Vermont scored 13 of the next 19 points.

Vermont’s school-record 22 wins give the program 64 over the last three seasons.

“I get dragged along. I do,” said Brennan, whose UVM record is 239-268. “I’ve been here 18 years and these guys have just put me on a magic carpet ride and said ‘TB, hold on, don’t get in the way, and we’ll make it a lot of fun for you,’ and that’s exactly what they’ve done.”

CATAMOUNTS 72, BLACK BEARS 53

Maine (20-10) Vermont (22-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Dubois 3 3 2 2 8 Coppenrath 14 19 14 15 43

Campbell 4 7 2 2 10 Njilla 2 6 13

Dobson 5 18 0 1 11 Jones 1 2 2

Reed 3 16 3 4 9 Sorrentine 2 10 6

Marwood 1 3 0 0 3 Hehn 1 5 2

Wallingford 1 2 0 0 3 Phelan 0 0 0

Hadjisotirov 1 6 0 0 3 Klimes 1 4 2

Petkus 0 1 0 0 0 Goia 0 0 0

Flavin 0 1 0 0 0 Jensen 0 1 0

Ahvenniemi 2 2 2 3 6 Sullivan 2 4

Hanson 0 1 0 0

Sheftic 0 1 0 0

Totals 20 59 9 12 53 23 52 22 24 72

Maine 23 53

Vermont 40 72

3-pt. goals ? Maine (4-29): Campbell 0-3, Dobson 1-9, Reed 0-8, Markwood 1-2, Wallingford 1-2, Hadjisotirov 1-4, Petkus 0-1; Vermont (4-17): Coppenrath 1-2, Njilla 1-3, Sorrentine 2-7, Hehn 0-4, Jensen 0-1

Attendance: 3,228