BURLINGTON, Vt. - The No. 7 University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team fell to No. 2 Vermont, 64-57, Saturday afternoon at Patrick Gymnasium in the America East quarterfinals.

Freshman guard Khalil Badru led the Wildcats with 18 points, shooting. Junior guard Sami Pissis (Paris, France) added 15 points and five rebounds. Sophomore forward Davide Poser (Veneto, Italy) also finished in the double-digits with 11 points after knocking down three three-pointers.

But Vermont ended the game with an 8-0 run in the last two minutes to move on to the semi-finals

“To come on the road and play as hard as we did and execute as well as we did for a good bit of the game showed a lot,” head coach Nathan Davis said. “Hopefully, with the guys we have returning, we can learn what it takes from this and be better next year.”

The Wildcats came ready to play, outperforming the Catamounts in the first half.Badru began his near-perfect first half with the team’s first five points. Poser followed that up with a three-pointer to put the ‘Cats up 8-2.

UNH maintained that lead for the entire first half going into the locker room up 12 (34-26).

Badru finished the first half with 14 points (5-6 from the field, 4-4 from beyond the arc).

UNH held strong through the second half and did not give up the lead that they built from the first basket of the game until 6:39 remained on the clock (52-50).

Points from Pissis, junior guard Jawarie Hamelin (Westerly, R.I.), Poser, and junior guard Anthony McComb III (Dayton, Ohio) kept UNH in the lead until that point. The Catamounts took their lead to four points, but a graduate student forward Emmanuel Okpomo (Delta State, Nigeria) layup and Poser three-pointer put the ‘Cats back up 55-54.

Then Vermont’s run ended UNH’s season.

MEN’S HOCKEY

UNH 4, NO. 17 UMASS LOWELL 2

Senior forward Robert Cronin and senior forward Liam Devlin each scored twice as the University in front of a sold-out crowd at the Whittemore Center at Key Auto Group Complex in the regular season finale for both teams. The Wildcats sweep the two-game series versus the River Hawks as UNH won 4-1 on Friday at the Tsongas Center.

With tonight’s results, UNH will be the No. 10 seed and play at No. 7 seed UMass Lowell in the Opening Round of the Hockey East Tournament on Wednesday, March 12. This is the second straight season these two teams will meet in the Opening Round. Last year UNH won 1-0 on March 13 at the Whittemore Center.

Senior goalie Rico DiMatteo recorded 31 saves to earn his second straight win, while sophomore forward Ryan Conmy also had a multi-point night with three assists for three points.

The Wildcats advance to 13-15-6 (5-14-5 Hockey East), while the River Hawks fall to 15-15-4 (8-13-3 Hockey East).