Greene scores 1,000 but UMBC falls to Albany 80-71

Looking at the halftime and final scores it looks like Albany had the game in hand from the jump. UMBC made then work. There were seven ties and 12 lead changes while UMBC held a seven point lead early in the game.

UMBC’s problem is a lack of depth. Bakari Smith and Jake Wasco have not shown they deserve getting playing time at all this season in game situations. Until they really show something in practice they will likely remain on the bench unless they are disparately needed.

Brett Burrier however has shown he can compete. Unlike Wasco and Smith Burrier is a walk-on and does not receiver a scholarship to play on the team but he’s outplayed them. As you’ve all read in my other posts Burrier is a very athletic and confident ball player who isn’t afraid to play anybody. But until these last two games he has shown why he’s a walk on. But tonight when called on he did come up. Five points in 14 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot but that’s 0.35 points a minute and Darryl Proctor (who scored 15 points) scored 0.38 points per minute.

Proctor, Chauncey Gilliam, and Jay Greene lead the team with 15 of more points each tonight but it was an overall well rounded night by UMBC. Gilliam may have just removed that in the making label he has on him and just be a star. He lead UMBC with 18 points and six rebounds. He went 8-8 from the line with three assists, one block and a steal. With that performance he has now scored double-figures in four straight games and has been a solid option for Greene to give the ball to.

Proctor scored double-digits in his 27th straight game despite not being fully healthy. He spent time at a hospital in Boston after the game with a leg injury and was not at full strength tonight but still racked up 15 points, four rebounds, and two steals.

Greene was the man of the night for UMBC. Coming into the game he needed 14 points to get 1,000 in his career and he got 16 points. He’s one of 15 UMBC players to ever reach that mark with the last one being Brian Hodges last year. He also had five assists and four rebounds. Sadly Greene couldn’t celebrate the achievement with the loss.

Justin Fry and Matt Spadafora are both improving but still much step it up even more if hey want to turn it around this year. Spadafora scored nine points with five assists and a team high four steals but he has to increase his scoring and give UMBC an option outside.

Fry has regressed a lot this year but has shown much improvement in his last two games. Against Boston U he had a near double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds along with four assists and a block. He followed that up with an eight point, five rebound night. It’s not bad considering he’s the only guy inside but he has to be more confident. He’s not playing confident and is getting caught out of position rebounding. Tonight UMBC got out rebounded 36-25.

In all honesty UMBC just got caught by a great night by Albany. Albany is not a good three point shooting night at all and the Danes went 10-18 from behind the arc. They are also a lot deeper and keep their top guys like Will Harris (20 points seven rebounds), Tim Ambrose (28 points, six rebounds), and Anthony Raffa (eight points three assists) fresh so they come up big in the end of games.

UMBC has now dropped three straight but it’s not over for UMBC in any way. At any level all that counts is the conference tournament. Now you want to do well in the season but they still have 10 games (nine conference) to figure things out.