Ecc Tournament

The University of Maryland Baltimore County basketball team seems to be peaking when all coaches want their teams to get hot -- tournament time.UMBC (4-21, 3-8) won its second straight East Coast Conference game for the first time this season, defeating Drexel, 77-73, last -- night, behind a career-high 27 points by sophomore guard Derell Thompson.The loss ended a four-game winning streak for Drexel and dropped the Dragons out of second place.The Retrievers are in sixth place in the ECC with the conference tournament at Towson State about a week away (beginning March 2)

It's almost March Madness time, with tournament play for some conferences beginning this week. But there's a possibility that when the NCAA and the National Invitation Tournament announce their Division I pairings, that the state of Maryland will be shut out.With a week left in the regular season, just two of the nine state Division I teams (Coppin 15-11, and Towson 14-12) have winning records, and just two others (Loyola 12-13, and Maryland 10-13) have a shot of finishing over .500 (none of the other five teams have won more than eight games)

The University of Maryland Baltimore County men's basketball team will play host to Penn State on Feb. 17 at 7:35 p.m. at Baltimore Arena.Proceeds from the game will go to the CollegeBound Foundation, an independent endowment fund used to encourage Baltimore City high school graduates to pursue post-secondary education.The Retrievers will play road games against 1991 national finalist Kansas (Nov. 23), Illinois (Dec. 21) and Marquette (Dec. 30).The Retrievers will play a minimum of 15 home games, the most in the team's six-year Division I history.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Towson State has given ranked teams fits, but last night, there wasn't much of a surprise. Towson suffered through scoring droughts at the start of both halves and fell to 25th-ranked Virginia, 72-49, at University Hall.The Tigers (17-10) fell to 0-15 lifetime against Atlantic Coast Conference competition, and it was an unsatisfactory performance to coach Terry Truax."I'm disappointed in our team's play," said Truax, an assistant at Virginia during the 1971-72 season.

During an eight-year run at the Towson Center, the East Coast Conference basketball tournament has evolved from a minor event important only to the principals into a full-scale happening complete with league-record crowds and national cable television for the championship game.Nearly 9,000 attended the three sessions last March, with 4,435 cramming the arena for Towson State's title clinching."The first year, we had a big snowstorm and lost money," recalled Towson athletic director Bill Hunter.

Devin Boyd, the East Coast Conference's No. 2 scorer, was on the Towson State University bench yesterday, dressed but ailing with a case of the flu.The league's top scorer, Obet Vazquez of Central Connecticut, was on the opposite bench in street clothes, the victim of an injured knee and not available to play.It took little more than 10 minutes to realize the Tigers would weather their loss much more easily than the undermanned Blue Devils.Towson remained unbeaten in the ECC and clinched at least a share of the regular-season title with an 84-76 victory at the Towson Center that was more routine than inspiring.

Brent Nickles' first season of Division I college baseball was something to remember.Nickles, a University of Maryland Baltimore County right fielder, ripped opposing pitchers this season for a .335 batting average, slammed five home runs and 10 doubles, and drove in 40 runs.Plus, three of those homers were grand slams, and he made only two errors while starting 85 percent of UMBC's games.His efforts helped UMBC set a school record for victories (37) and make the NCAA Division I baseball tournament for the first time in school history.

Forget big. UMBC thought small last night, and the downsized Retrievers ran past Central Connecticut State for a 91-80 victory that maintained their second-place standing in the East Coast Conference.For the second straight game, UMBC was without the services of sophomore center Sony Nixon, as its leading scorer and rebounder remained sidelined with a hip pointer. Reserve forward Dion Andrews was out with a back ailment, and for most of the game, coach Earl Hawkins used no one taller than 6 feet 5.Not to worry.

It's time for the University of Maryland Baltimore County baseball team to ante up as it opens East Coast Conference play against Hofstra today with a doubleheader at Catonsville Community College."

They don't have a reputation in Division I and they didn't even win the East Coast Conference regular-season title, but UMBC's baseball players have a solid resume and will closely monitor the announcement of the NCAA tournament field Monday.For starters, the Retrievers' 37-11 record is the best among the 72 Division I teams under the ECAC umbrella. They beat Atlantic 10 champion George Washington, and went 7-2 against the top four teams in the Colonial Athletic Association. Six of their 11 losses came by one run, including two straight to Rider in the ECC tournament, ruining UMBC's chance for an automatic NCAA berth.