By Corey Johns, So Much Sports Baltimore
Who would have thought a year ago anybody would be talking about a 4-0 UMBC season in 2016? Especially considering Kennesaw State had a player score 31 points (Kendrick Ray) and another post a 14-point, 15-rebound double-double (Aubrey Williams) and as a team shot 48.4% from the floor, it seemed unlikely they would be headed there either. But the Retrievers were unstoppable offensively themselves and beat the Owls 93-85 to stay unbeaten to start the season.
Jairus Lyles continued to show he is a dominant force on the basketball court, as he scored 29 points off 11-19 shooting along with a 6-6 effort from the charity strip. And three other Retrievers reached double-digits as the team shot 52.3% from the floor.
Joe Sherburne had a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double while Arkel Lamar and KJ Maura scored 15 and 12 points, respectively for UMBC.
After an early dead-heat, the Owls took early control of the game when a jumper by Ray put his team ahead 16-10.
After a few exchanged shots, Josh Burnett kept Kennesaw State ahead by five points at 22-17, but UMBC scored six-straight points to take the lead in the game. Lamar gave the Retrievers the lead after he tipped-in a miss by Jourdan Grant.
Kennesaw State still remained in control of the game and pushed back ahead by seven points at 38-31 late in the first half, but a 3-pointer by Maura and dunk by Lamar cut the Owls lead down to two and made it a 38-36 game at halftime.
A layup by Kyle Clarke and dunk by Jordan Jones pushed he Owls back ahead by six points within the first minute of the second half. Two old-fashioned three-point plays by Lyles and a 3-point shot by Sherburne got the Retrievers back out ahead, however.
UMBC used a 10-point run over a two minute span to get ahead 59-52 with 13:26 remaining. Kennesaw State fought back and tied the game at 68, but the Retrievers used a 9-2 run to take a lead they wouldn’t lose.
A layup and a 3-pointer by Ray cut UMBC’s lead down to one. The Retrievers shut the Owls down for three minutes, however, and went on an eight-point run to get ahead by nine points with less than three minutes left.
The Retrievers hit clutch free throws at the end of the game to keep ahead and secure the victory.
UMBC scored 57 points in the second half alone. Through four games the Retrievers have scored a school record 352 points, averaging 88 points per game.
UMBC will stay local next week when they travel to the state capital to play Navy on Thanksgiving eve at 7 p.m.
This article was provided by So Much Sports. For more great sports coverage by So Much Sports please visit somuchsports.com and baltimore.somuchsports.com.
NYC Buckets Archive 
Just a comment to the author of this column: as a general rule of journalism, at the first mention of a specific institution, place, title, etc., always spell out the FULL name of that reference. The abbreviations, acronyms can be used from the second mention on.
I say this because some of your readers — I’m one of them — don’t know what the initials ‘UMBC’ stand for and I still don’t.
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Thanks for the comment. UMBC stands for University of Maryland-Baltimore County, so it’s technically an acronym, but it’s the official designation of the school. It’s not one that should be spelled out on first reference. On the NCAA’s official site for instance you’ll only see references to UMBC. Apologies if that’s confusing, but that’s the correct style. The Retrievers play in America East with Stony Brook, and have been one of the worst teams in Division I the past 8 seasons, so it’s certainly not surprising that you wouldn’t know who they are.
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John, your point is well taken. However, the NCAA is an athletic organization, and the NCAA is not a final arbiter, or at least I hope not, of how a journalist should operate stylistically. Your function as a journalist is to present the facts in a clear and knowledgeable fashion, and, as I said prior, some of your readers would not be aware of what the acronym UMBC stands for. And, I think, that’s information a reader ought to know — the hell with the NCAA.
By the way, I just discovered the ‘NYC Buckets’ site at the end of last year, and I think you do an absolutely great job. The Ivy League has been overlooked for so long in coverage: I thank you for filling that gap so thoroughly.
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I’m curious, would you be asking this if it were a story on USC, UCLA, UNLV, TCU or any other big program that primarily goes by its acronym?
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