UMBC Pulls of Major Upset Beating Nebraska 66-64

There is no better way to come back from a very disappointing effort and a loss to American then by beating Big 12 Nebraska. UMBC became the first team in 31 non-conference opponents to come away with a win in Lincoln to break the eighth-longest streak in the nation in front of 8,293 fans.

Nebraska entered the game number 53 in RPI, and that win will definitely raise the conference RPI to likely give the conference champion a higher seed than UMBC received last year.

At one point in the first half, the retrievers built themselves a 20 point lead, and then went into the half up by sixteen. Nebraska battled back in the second half, but a block by Darryl Proctor with 1.2 seconds left sealed the win for UMBC.

After losing to American, Monroe called out Matt Spadafora, Justin Fry, and Richard Flemming and said that they all have to step up if they want to win and they cannot just sit and rely on Proctor and Jay Greene to win game. Spadafora certainly had himself a fine game with 11 points and three rounds, but he went five for five from the foul line including four in the final two minutes of the game along with a steal that made is a two possession game for the cornhuskers both times.
As for Fry, he got into foul trouble down the stretch along with the rest of the team, only Proctor ended the game with less then three fouls, but a dunk three minutes in really set the tone of the game.

Proctor and Greene did both lead the team. Proctor scored 15 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season and Greene was an assist away from a double-double with 13 points and nine assists, but the star of the game was the freshman phenom, Chauncey Gilliam. He lead all scored with 21 points with eight rebounds. Coming into the game Gilliam lead all American East players in field goal percentage and sunk 82% of his shots in the game to raise his percentage to .647.

Gilliam’s performance in the game highlighting a remarkable season so far may just put him into the starting lineup in place of Richard Flemming who has struggled all season with fouls. Because of four fouls early in the second half he only played 13 minutes and did not score a point in that time. If that move is made that would move Proctor to power forward and Spadafora to shooting forward where they played last year and Gilliam would take over the two-guard spot.

With the win the players will have something to celebrate over their Christmas break before they come back to practice on Sunday to prepare for their final non-conference opponent, St. Louis.