LOWELL, Mass. – Junior Angel Montas Jr. (La Romana, D.R.) logged team highs with 18 points and eight rebounds, as the UMass Lowell men's basketball team (8-12, 3-2 AE) dropped a weeknight matchup against Vermont (12-8, 4-1 AE), 77-68, on Thursday evening at the Kennedy Family Athletic Complex.
 
"This was a tough loss against a very good Vermont team," said Head Coach Pat Duquette. "As always, a championship-caliber team. I don't think we're in sync right now or playing as well as we were in the beginning of the year. We made some mistakes early to give them a lead at halftime. Seems like small things, but in a game against as good of a team as Vermont, the margin is really thin and you have to play almost mistake free. I thought in the second half in spurts, we were better. We outscored them in the second half, but just had dug too big of a hole in the first."
 
Montas Jr. was joined in double figures by three other River Hawks. Junior Xavier Spencer (Calgary, Alberta) added 13 points, while junior Darrel Yepdo (Dracut, Mass.) finished with 12 points on four three-pointers and senior Austin Green (Sicklerville, N.J.) rounded out the top scorers with 10 points. As a team, the River Hawks outrebounded the opposition, 38-35.

The River Hawks won the tip and opened the scoring with a jumper from Montas Jr. Although Vermont responded with an early, 7-3 spurt to take their first lead, Yepdo quickly tallied his second three of the night and Green added a tip-in layup to put the home side back on top, 12-9, with 14:35 remaining in the first half.
 
UMass Lowell was back on top four minutes later thanks to freshman JJ Massaquoi (Prince George's County, Md.), who battled under the hoop for a puck-back layup, giving his side a 14-13 edge at 10:41. The Catamounts answered with the next seven points to take a two-possession lead, but the River Hawks would battle back, as an and-1 from Montas Jr. ignited an 8-2 surge that was capped off by a second-chance three from Yepdo to even the score at 24-24 with 5:35 to go in the first. Vermont followed with the next eight points, and despite junior Jared Frey (Columbus, Ohio) sinking a three to break up the run, the visitors closed the half with eight of the final 10 points to pull away, 40-29, at the break.
 
Vermont tallied the first points coming out of halftime, but Spencer responded with five in a row, sparking a 13-4 run that concluded with threes from Montas Jr. and junior Shawn Simmons II (Philadelphia, Pa.) to cut the difference to just 46-42 with 16:19 still to play. The visitors maintained at least a four-point buffer until the River Hawks scored eight in a row, including the corner trey from Spencer that made 51-50 at 13:41.
 
Three minutes later, a string of 12 unanswered Catamount points was broken up by an and-1 from Montas Jr. and a three from Yepdo. Massaquoi then added the next five River Hawk points to put his team within eight at 69-61 with six minutes to go. Vermont followed with six of the next seven, and although Montas Jr. converted on another and-1 ahead of a trey from Spencer, the Catamounts held on for the 77-68 outcome.
 
The River Hawks have a quick turnaround, heading to UMBC for a 1 p.m. matchup on Saturday, January 24.