Albany, NY -- (Sports Network) - Jamar Wilson sprang for 29 points as Albany secured its first trip to the NCAA Tournament with an 80-67 win over Vermont in the America East final at the Recreation and Convocation Center.

Wilson finished 10-of-18 from the field and gathered eight rebounds while Lucious Jordan netted 18 points for the top-seeded Great Danes (21-10), who had never even reached the conference semifinals prior to this year. Brent Wilson and Jon Iati added eight points apiece.

Mike Trimboli paced his team with 16 points but was just 4-of-14 from the floor for the Catamounts (13-17), who were denied a fourth-straight AEC Tournament title. Josh Duell had 13 points and Chris Holm scored 12 in the loss.

The Great Danes jumped out to an 18-4 advantage to claim control early. Jordan had seven points in the stretch, including a lay-in with 13:33 remaining to cap the burst.

Vermont scored the next six points to pull within eight and trailed by just 11, 35-24, after a Rob Sisca layup with about four minutes left. However, Albany finished the half with a 9-2 surge to take a 44-26 lead into the break.

Jamar Wilson had all but two of those points, including a triple with two seconds on the clock. He had 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting at intermission for the Great Danes, who limited Vermont to just 30.8 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

The Catamounts were unable to fight their way back in the second half. Jordan hit a layup just over two minutes into the stanza to polish off a 6-2 run that upped the Great Danes' advantage to 50-28.

Albany went up by as many as 27 in the second half, and was never seriously threatened.

Game Notes:

A Catamount win would have made them the first team since Northeastern (1984-87) to win four straight AEC Tournament titles...Albany had lost 14 of the 16 previous meetings between the two schools entering Saturday's game. The Great Danes were able to snap an eight-game losing skid against Vermont with a 76-64 victory earlier this season...Albany shot 58.6 percent in the first half.