America East POY TJ Hurley carries Vermont basketball into semifinals

Vermont basketball‘s TJ Hurley was named the America East Player of the Year earlier this week. The Catamount senior played like it in the conference quarterfinals on Saturday, March 7.

Hurley dropped 24 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, carrying No. 2 Vermont to a 77-57 victory over seventh-seeded Bryant in front of 1,936 at Patrick Gym.

The Catamounts (21-11) will host a conference semifinal for the 17th consecutive year on Tuesday, March 10. They will play No. 3 NJIT, which ousted sixth-seeded Maine with a game-winning jumper in the final second for the program’s first America East playoff win.

Hurley went 9 of 12 from the floor, including 5 of 7 on 3-point attempts, to finish one point shy of his career high of 30, which he set against UMass Lowell on Jan. 22. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Ontario beat the Bulldogs (57) with his perimeter game and turned aggressive with drives to the hoop for three-point plays. His second-half performance — 7 of 8 from the field with four 3-pointers — helped to brush aside Bryant’s multiple comeback bids.

With Hurley firing away, Vermont shot 57.1% from the floor, turned it over just eight times and scored 38 points in the paint.

“He played like a guy who didn’t want his career to end (Saturday),” Vermont coach John Becker said. “My gut is telling me this is the TJ we are going to see the rest of the year.”

The eighth Catamount to be named the league’s top player in the last 11 seasons, Hurley is reserved and stoic by nature, both on and off the court. He’s come more out of his shell, shown greater emotion while playing in his fourth year in Burlington, according to Becker.

“I said to him on the walk up here and in the locker room, he has to have that mentality the rest of the year,” Becker said. “He’s so unselfish and he’s such a great teammate — it’s uncomfortable sometimes for him to be overly aggressive because we don’t preach that here. But (Saturday) you saw it.

“He’s the best player in the league, he was voted the best player in the league, he’s the best player on the court and he was terrific.”

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A year after a disappointing semifinal loss to Maine when he scored just five points, Hurley responded to the moment on Saturday.

“It’s win or go home. And for me specifically, it’s win or it’s the end of my career,” Hurley said. “There’s some pressure behind that, but that’s what we want at this time of year — we want to have pressure situations … to come out like that, all of us, it felt connected all (game), we uplifted each other.”

Ahead by as many as 17 points late in the first half, Vermont saw Bryant rattle off a 10-0 spurt that continued into the second stanza. Vermont then benefitted from two Bryant fouls, one flagrant, on a Hurley 3-point attempt. Vermont essentially collected eight points on the possession: Hurley went 2-for-5 at the line, Barnett hit a floater and, after a Bryant turnover in the backcourt, Hurley knocked down a triple for a 46-31 lead with 15:03 to go.