For the first time in five years, Vermont is not in the finals, and for the first time the past two years, neither is Albany.

This Saturday at noon, the top-seeded UMBC Retrievers will take on the No. 2 seed Hartford Hawks at UMBC’s RAC Arena for the America East Championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament at stake. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

UMBC defeated the fourth-seeded Vermont Catamounts, 73-64, Sunday afternoon at the Events Center. Vermont led for most of the game, but down the stretch UMBC went on a 13-4 run to end the game and advance to its first ever championship game in its fifth season in the America East and its first ever in 22 years as a Division I program. The Retrievers have played in four different D-1 conferences: America East, Northeast, East Coast and Big South.

Vermont shot 51 percent from the field including 57 percent in the first half, in which the Catamounts saw themselves up one going into the break, 34-33. But Vermont turned the ball over 21 times for the game in part due to 11 UMBC steals, four of which came from Darryl Proctor, who also added 17 points.

Proctor, along with Cavell Johnson, held Marqus Blakely to just nine points on 4-for-9 shooting. While Blakely hit his first 3-pointer of the season, he didn’t attempt a free throw. Blakely had 14 rebounds, but just two on the offensive glass. While keeping Blakely off of the glass, UMBC also did a good job taking care of the basketball. They finished with just seven turnovers, three in the first half.

Mike Trimboli had 21 points for Vermont while Colin McIntosh added 11 points and Evan Fjeld added 10 points.

While UMBC watched in the stands and the coaches scouted on the sidelines, second seeded-Hartford defeated sixth-seeded Boston University, 59-52.

Hartford, which will advance to its first championship game in 25 AE seasons, was led by Joe Zeglinski’s 16 points. Warren McLendon added 13 points and 10 rebounds while being a defensive force down low adding five blocks.

When these two teams met a couple of weeks ago in Boston, the Terriers shot 13-for-32, blowing out Hartford 97-66. John Holland went off for 38 points that game, but on Sunday he was held to just four points in 15 minutes of action.

While the Hartford lead was in double figures for most of the second half, Boston had its chance early, cutting the halftime lead of five down to one in a little more than a minute. And with 16 minutes to go, the Terriers found themselves down just 31-29. But then Boston went seven minutes with just one field goal as Hartford went on a 15-4 run.

Hartford split the season series with UMBC, with both games decided by a point. The Retrievers won at home, 86-85, in January as the Hawks got their revenge in a 58-57 win earlier this month in the final regular season game.

UMBC had five players spread out across three All-Conference teams and lost at home only once all year, 77-74 to Maine in January.