'Fairy tale ending': Matt Veretto and Dylan Penn lead Vermont to NCAA Tournament

John Becker does believe in storybook endings.

Legends of monsters, goblins and even Catamounts can all have their chapters rewritten. His University of Vermont men’s basketball stars are proof.

Matt Veretto was running in men’s leagues on a three-year hiatus from basketball. Dylan Penn was reeling after his NCAA Tournament berth was denied. The pair took a chance on Vermont to find that their tales aren’t just basketball lore.

"Unbelievable, we had two fairy tale stories that had the ending, that never happens in life,” Becker said. “You never get the fairy tale ending. Dylan Penn gets the fairy tale ending, Matt Veretto in a different way."

Penn tallied a game-high 21 points, the never quit, all-energy Veretto supplied 15 as Vermont won its second of back-to-back America East Conference titles 72-59 against UMass Lowell in front of 2,880 at Patrick Gym on Saturday afternoon.

"We were able to deliver and he's gonna go to the NCAA Tournament where he should have done it last year, but now he's going to do it," Becker said of Penn. "And Matty Veretto, what can you say? He's been the difference in our team."

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Penn was named the conference tournament’s most outstanding player, a year after winning the same award in the ASUN tournament for his Bellarmine team. NCAA rules kept Bellarmine out of the tournament, leading Penn to the transfer portal to fulfill a dream.

“Last year I won the tournament and the next day, I couldn’t even really enjoy it the way I wanted to,” Penn said. “I've kind of been thinking about this opportunity for a year, just to have an opportunity to get back to the tournament. Right now I'm just blessed that I came here and blessed that we were able to achieve one of my goals.”

Earlier: How Robin Duncan persuaded Dylan Penn to chase his NCAA Tournament dreams

Finn Sullivan’s introduction to Veretto, who was named to the all-championship team, was before the 6-foot-8 forward had been offered a scholarship. The Connecticut native, who started his playing career at Delaware, was in Burlington running open gyms preparing for a return to basketball.

“He was going so hard that he literally was throwing up,” Sullivan said remembering the meeting.

Veretto didn’t stop there. He packed on 25 pounds, became a starter on a conference championship team. And his back-to-back 3-pointers — the senior pumped and side-stepped the River Hawk defender on the latter trey — broke open a 53-46 lead with 7:43 left.

“Matt's been a really important part of the team all year,” Penn said. “Thinking back to the summer, you can tell he's just one of those guys who's gonna do whatever it takes to help the team win.”

More: Three years removed, Matt Veretto returns to college basketball at Vermont

Veretto had a job lined up after graduating from Connecticut, he put his name into the transfer portal and connected on the biggest shots to send Vermont dancing for the ninth time in program history.

"We let him (Veretto) get open in the second half for some threes,” Lowell coach Pat Duquette said. “And that's really the difference. It's all it takes in a game like this. I mean, it was back-and-forth up until that point and then all of a sudden, he gets open for two or three 3s.”

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Following the second trey, Veretto denied Lowell’s Yuri Covington a chance in the paint and forced a turnover and a RiverHawks’ timeout. Veretto flexed and met the Vermont bench with the energy that Sullivan saw in the summer.

"Someone came in and they were like, 'I don't know about this guy,'" Sullivan said of watching Veretto in the preseason. "I was like, 'He's going so hard out there, I would love a guy like that on my team.'"

Vermont outscored Lowell 47-30 in the second half as the Catamounts strung together runs of 6-0 and 7-0. Becker’s sixth title win broke an America East three-way tie between himself, Jim Calhoun and Will Brown.

Sullivan added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Aaron Deloney, who made the all-championship team, supplied 10 points. Lowell’s Allin Blunt had 14 points.

From transfers to champions, Matt Veretto and Dylan Penn are going to the NCAA Tournament.

“To have the fairy tale ending it's unbelievable and both of them stepped up and were unbelievable today,” Becker said. “They're both unbelievable today, it's really cool. This life is surreal."

Contact Jacob Rousseau at JRousseau@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter@ByJacobRousseau.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont men's basketball: Transfers Penn, Veretto make NCAA Tournament