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Albany
In the first 18 games of his college basketball career, Devonte Campbell didn’t play in half of them.
In four of those games, he played less than eight minutes. In two, he was on the court for one minute.
It took Will Brown, the coach of the University at Albany, awhile to figure Campbell out. Now, that problem falls to the rest of the America East Conference.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Campbell scored a career-high 25 points and had his second straight double-double to lead the Great Danes to a 78-69 win over UMBC at SEFCU Arena Wednesday night. Campbell came into the game averaging six points a game.
With the win, UAlbany, winner of eight of its past 10 games, moves into sole possession of third place in the league. The Danes are 8-5 in the league (17-11 overall). UMBC (16-10, 7-6) falls into a fourth-place tie with New Hampshire. There are three games left in the regular season.
Before Wednesday night, Campbell’s career high in points was 13. He had scored in double figures only five times. On this team, he didn’t have to. The brunt of the scoring has been coming from fellow sophomores David Nichols and Joe Cremo, who entered the UMBC game averaging a combined 33.9 points.
Nichols did his thing, scoring 18 against the Retrievers, but Cremo was slowed by foul trouble. Before fouling out, he managed just four points (all from the free-throw line) and missed the five shots he took from the field. This was just the third time in his career that he failed to make a shot from the field. The other two came during his freshman season.
And, to make matters worse for Cremo, Wednesday night was promoted as “Scotia Night.” Scotia is the village where Cremo is from.
Campbell picked up his more celebrated teammate as he made seven of 12 shots from the field (two of three from 3-point range). And he also does what he has done best, putting the clamps down on the opposing team’s best player. Campbell held UMBC guard Jairus Lyles (averaged 19.4 points) to 10 points, and half of those came in the final 1:20. Campbell matched his career high with 10 rebounds.
“Devonte was absolutely outstanding,” Brown said. “He is getting better and better every game. His best basketball is still in front of him.”
Campbell scored 15 of his points in the second half when the Danes outscored UMBC 50-38. He keyed an 11-0 run that erased a 40-39 UMBC lead and gave the Danes a 47-40 advantage with 12:01 left. The Retrievers would never lead again.
When asked to talk about his big night, Campbell seemed rather surprised that media members wondered where this offensive barrage came from.
“The ball went in the basket,” Campbell said. “Nothing new. Nothing unordinary. Nothing that I had not done before.”
Campbell said he has always been able to score, something that was backed up by Nichols, who was his teammate for a season at Midwest Elite Prep school in Crown Point, Ind.
“He doesn’t surprise me,” said Nichols, who made eight of 22 shots from the field. “I know what he is capable of.”
The Danes needed another source of offense after Cremo got saddled with his second foul 5:31 into the first half. Cremo would foul out with 2:29 left. He played a season-low 17 minutes.
“You never expect someone not to do something,” said UMBC coach Ryan Odom. “When you have a leading scorer (Cremo) not playing their best, someone has to step up and that is what (Campbell) did. He got open looks and he knocked them down.”
“Somebody had to step up and put the ball in the basket,” Campbell said. “It just so happened to be me.”
When asked if he considered himself an offensive player, Campbell said of course he is.
“Everyone is an offensive player,” he said. “Everyone puts the ball in the basket. I just put it in more (Wednesday).”
After the Danes started the league season with three straight losses, Brown decided he had to make a change and he put Campbell in the starting lineup and took out Marqueese Grayson. In the 10 games he has started, the Danes are 8-2, the only losses being to Vermont and Stony Brook, the top two teams in the league.
twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin
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