The University of Vermont men’s basketball team – the squad GW head coach Mike Lonergan led before his hire at GW – defeated Stony Brook 51-43 Saturday, winning the America East Championship and earning a bid to the NCAA tournament.

It’s the Catamounts’ fifth NCAA bid; their most recent a 2010 appearance where they fell in the first round to Syracuse. Lonergan left Vermont as the coach with the third best record in program history, boasting a 126-68, .649 record, and captured the America East regular season title and an NIT bid in his last season with the program.

Despite scoring just five points over the last nine and a half minutes of play, the Catamounts held off a Stony Brook rally to grab the victory. Vermont head coach John Becker, a former assistant under Lonergan at UVM, is also an alumnus.

Three other members of the GW athletic department have ties to Vermont and its league: associate head coach Hajj Turner was a UVM assistant coach under Lonergan, assistant director of basketball operations Maurice Joseph is a former Catamount, and athletic director Patrick Nero is the former Commissioner of the America East Conference.