BURLINGTON, Vt. – The last time the men from Maine and Vermont met, Taylor Coppenrath singlehandedly beat the Black Bears.

In Saturday afternoon’s rematch of the 2004 America East basketball title game at Patrick Gymnasium, Vermont’s 6-foot-9 senior forward needed a little help.

Coppenrath’s 6-footer from the right block off a high feed from freshman Josh Duell with 5.6 seconds left gave the Catamounts their sixth straight win over Maine, a come-from-behind 67-66 thriller before a sellout crowd.

“I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about them. They play us tough every time,” said Vermont guard T.J. Sorrentine. “They played bad against Binghamton, but they played a hell of a game today.”

The winning play was set up by a controversial jump ball call off a missed free throw attempt by Sorrentine with 15.3 seconds left. The ball bounced off the to the right and Maine’s Kevin Reed grabbed the ball and hugged it to his chest. Coppenrath wrapped up Reed and the whistle blew.

“Someone was on the other side of him, so I just put my arm in and it was either going to be a foul or not. I thought I had my hand on the ball pretty well,” said Coppenrath.

The referee signaled jump ball and the possession arrow was pointing to Vermont.

“When I heard the whistle, I was for sure I was going to the line, but I don’t have a whistle,” Reed said. “I thought I had the ball. I don’t know about the jump ball call, but what can I do?”

When asked if he would get that same call in Orono, Coppenrath replied, “Probably not.”

“It’s one of those calls. We thought we had a foul call, but it’s one you have to live with,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward, whose Bears fell to 7-6 and 2-2 in conference play.

A 3-point attempt by Maine’s Ernest Turner from the right wing at the buzzer bounced off the front of the rim and the Catamounts improved to 8-3 overall and 4-0 in the league.

Maine senior swingman Joe Campbell said he didn’t feel the win was ripped away.

“It hurts because we wanted to win so much, but we’re going to come back and rebound,” said Campbell, who had a game-high 10 rebounds plus two assists, a block, and a steal. “The next time we play, we’re going to come out, we’re going to remember, and we’re going to want to really put it to them.”

Vermont threatened to pull away after Sorrentine’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 31/2 minutes left, but Westbrook’s Jason Hight, a walk-on guard, hit a reverse lay-in on a baseline drive to keep Maine close and spark a 9-2 Maine run that put the Bears up 65-62 with 51 seconds left.

“He was tough. We were kind of getting away at the end and I thought if we stopped them there, we could collect the hymn books,” Vermont coach Tom Brennan said of Hight, who came off the bench to play point and defend Sorrentine because starter Chris Markwood is sidelined with a broken hand.

Maine came out a bit dazed and confused in the second half, committing three fouls (two offensive) and two turnovers in the first 49 seconds, but righted itself with a 14-3 run over the next three minutes to take a 40-33 lead. Turner and Reed fueled the run with two 3-pointers apiece.

The Bears beat back a UVM mini run and increased their lead to 11 points (48-37) with 9:33 to play, but the Catamounts roared back with runs of 6-0 and 11-0 over the next five minutes to go up 57-52 with 4:11 left.

Turner shot 6 for 9 from 3-point range and led the Bears with a game-high 28 points.

“Turner’s a great player. I didn’t know he was that good until today,” Brennan said.

Senior guard Jermaine Jackson chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds.

Coppenrath and Sorrentine each finished with 25 points and eight rebounds.

The Cats outshot the Bears 40 to 33.3 percent from the floor in the first half and outrebounded them 20-15.

CATAMOUNTS 67, BLACK BEARS 66

Maine (7-6) Vermont (8-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Dubois 0 0 0 0 0 Coppenrath 8 18 9 10 25

Campbell 1 7 1 2 3 Mopa Njila 0 2

Flavin 2 7 3 4 7 Klimes 1 2 2

Turner 8 17 6 6 28 Sorrentine 7 20 6 9 25

Jackson 3 7 2 2 10 Hehn 1 2 5

Bruff 0 0 0 0 0 McCrory 0 0 0

Hight 2 2 0 0 4 Jensen 0 1 0

Reed 5 11 0 1 13 Schneider 0 0 1

Ahvenniemi 0 0 1 2 1 Duell 1 4 7

Totals 21 51 13 17 66 18 47 24 33 67

Maine 26 66

Vermont 30 67

3-pt. goals – Maine (11-22): Campbell 0-1, Flavin 0-1, Turner 6-9, Jackson 2-5, Reed 3-6; Vermont (7-18): Coppenrath 0-1, Sorrentine 5-11, Hehn 1-2, Jensen 0-1, Duell 1-3

Attendance: 3,266