NCAA Basketball Odds: Boston U. at Vermont for NCAA Bid

Vermont's Marqus Blakely is the best player in the America East. (AP Images)

The winner of Boston U. vs. Vermont will punch an automatic ticket to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon as the America East tourney champion – bet on the championship game with Bodog’s college basketball odds.

It’s an interesting schedule in this conference tournament, as both teams played semifinal games last Sunday. Vermont (24-9), the second seed, crushed New Hampshire 57-38 despite just eight points from leading scorer and two-time conference player of the year Marqus Blakely. The Catamounts are very familiar with America East championship games, as they won three consecutive titles from 2003-05 and then lost the next two championship games. Vermont has won 10 of 11 games entering Saturday’s title tilt and gets this one at home, where it was 9-2 this year. Starting forward Evan Fjeld (10.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg) lost his mother to cancer on Tuesday, but he will play. It's hard not to root for him to have a big game.

BU, the fourth seed, beat regular-season champion Stony Brook 70-63 behind guard Corey Lowe’s 24 points and a 13-3 run in the game’s final six minutes or so. Lowe is averaging 25.0 ppg in this tournament. The Terriers (19-12) are in the title game for the first time since 2003 and go for their first championship since 2002. They have won six straight games overall.

This game should be a battle of opposites, as Vermont has held its first two tournament opponents to an average of just 48.5 points per game on 32 percent shooting. BU, on the other hand, is AE’s top-scoring team at 70.8 ppg. Vermont won both regular-season meetings, 78-58 at home on Jan. 17 and 76-75 at BU on Feb. 9. These two haven’t met in the conference championship game since 2003.

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