Durham, NH –

The UMBC men’s basketball team scored the first 16 points of the contest and never looked back in a dominant, 85-63, America East Conference victory over the New Hampshire Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at Lundholm Gymnasium. UMBC (16-8, 9-2 AE) and NJIT remain even in the loss column for first place in the league standings pending the Highlanders result later today.

Junior guard Jah’Likai King and graduate student guard DJ Armstrong Jr. (3 assists, 3 steals) led five Retrievers in double-figures with 17 points apiece.  Sophomore forward Caden Diggs (15 points), graduate student forward Josh Odunowo (12 points), and sophomore guard Ace Valentine (10 points) provided a balanced scoring effort. Junior forward Jose Roberto Tanchyn grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds along with a team-high four assists.

UMBC, off to its best start in the conference since the 2017-18 season, blitzed the Wildcats in the opening half as they held a 47-28 advantage at intermission.  The Retrievers made 15-of-26 field goal attempts for a 57.7 percent clip and swished all 12 of their free throw attempts.

The Dawgs, winners of four straight, held a 16-0 advantage after Armstrong Jr. hit the first of his three treys of the day at the 14:09 mark.  UMBC continued to apply the pressure as they extended the lead to 27-7 following a jumper by Armstrong Jr. with 10:41 left in the stanza.

New Hampshire (8-16, 4-7 AE) went on their only run of the period as it used a 17-4 burst to trim the deficit to 31-24 at the 6:40 mark. However, King and Diggs splashed consecutive triples to ignite a 12-0 stretch over the next 3:40, resulting in a 43-24 lead. King scored seven points during the run.

The Retrievers left no doubt as they scored the first eight points of the second half to widen their lead to 55-28 with 17:09 remaining. King opened the scoring with a jumper, and Armstrong Jr. buried back-to-back 3-pointers to account for the scoring.

UMBC held its largest lead of the game at the 14:33 mark, 62-33, after Diggs converted a jumper following a turnover. The Retrievers matched their largest lead on three other occasions, the last one coming with 6:50 remaining after a layup by Odunowo.

The Retrievers held the Wildcats to 38.2 percent shooting (21-for-55), and the hosts went just 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from behind the arc.

UMBC finished with a 51.7 percent shooting clip overall, making 30-of-58 attempts. The Dawgs also made 16-of-19 free throws for an 84.2 percent rate.

R.J. Kennedy led the Wildcats with 15 points while Belal El Shakery grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

UMBC, which swept the season series with New Hampshire, will host Vermont for hockey jersey giveaway night on Thursday evening.

Every other week on NHPR, we like to put a spotlight on people and places doing interesting things around the state on Give Back NH.

Learn more about all that New England Disabled Sports has to offer, including volunteer and donation opportunities here.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Just up the Kancamagus Highway in Lincoln, nestled on Loon Mountain, is New England Disabled Sports. Since 1987, NEDS, as it’s affectionately referred to by its staff, has been providing adaptive sports instruction to students of varying abilities at both Loon Mountain and Bretton Woods.

Jessica Harney is the board chair at New England Disabled Sports. It was her father who co-founded the organization in 1987. His reason for doing so? To involve her sister in family activities.

Jessica Harney: I have a younger sister who lives with a cognitive disability, and we were here as a family, vacationing. She didn’t have tremendous motor skills at the time, and my dad was trying to teach her how to ski with bungee cords and a walker and two skis.

She says the impact adaptive sports — skiing in particular — had on her family was life changing.

Jessica Harney: It gave us the opportunity to have something to do as a family outside in recreation. And, you know, it quickly became that we could go anywhere in the world and be able to ski together. And skiing became biking and biking became swimming. And I truly believe that because of the motivation and the power of skiing and how it drives the motor skills and social skills, she gained other opportunities in life.

Vance Perry, development director at New England Disabled Sports, says the joy families feel is what keeps him coming in to work every day.

Vance Perry: A family came up with a child that has a disability, and they never thought that they would be a skiing family. I was able to take that kid out on the hill, show them what skiing is all about. And now the family kind of opened up their eyes to say, wow, we actually can be a skiing family.

For Geoff Krill, working at NEDS hits a bit closer to home.

Geoff Krill: So I started as a student actually in 1995, after I had my spinal cord injury accident and I was skiing ten months later and kind of started to build a career around it, you know, made those first few turns and next thing you know, I’m like, I really love this. It was all here for me. And I’m like, this could be a career for me. So it kind of then just evolved from that.

Geoff is the senior sports coordinator at New England Disabled Sports. He says that while teaching people to ski is what they do, it’s more than that.

Geoff Krill: You’re teaching people that they can do something they thought they might not have in their lives anymore. And to just be a part of a community together of people that understand, but also normalizing disability at the same time.

That is what drives Vance as well.

Vance Perry: We’d love to teach ourselves out of a job, right? If a family comes in here with maybe a child that has a disability, our goal is to get them to be able to ski as a family, and they don’t need NEDS anymore. They can go out there and say, hey, I’ve gotten the base skills and now I can take it out with my family and go ski independently, and I don’t have to come in for a lesson anymore.

During my visit, I was able to see all that NEDS has to offer from several pieces of adaptive equipment designed to fit every need, to the slopes in the back where they teach students, and even downstairs into the locker room where I met Tom Walsh, a volunteer with NEDS. He says that volunteering is rewarding to him when he sees the progress the students make.

Tom Walsh: Everybody shows some signs of progress, and that’s very rewarding. And it’s fun for us to get out and ski.

It’s volunteers, like Tom, Jessica says, that make the organization feel like a family.

Jessica Harney: It’s amazing. You know, we have over 200 volunteers here, and it’s like having 200 family members with you every weekend year round. It really is about the family aspect. Everyone is here for the same mission, vision, goals and that is to have fun through sport and recreation, whether that be the winter or the summer.

By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – The vehicle inspection program is suspended until further notice, but drivers are still responsible under current law to ensure “that any vehicle driven in New Hampshire is safe to operate, regardless of the status of the inspection program.”

That’s according to a press release issued late Friday afternoon by Attorney General John Formella and Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn.

But they failed to say how a driver can guarantee the safety of their vehicle without an inspection program.

The vehicle inspection program has been a source of confusion since a new law to end it was supposed to go into effect Jan. 31.

On Friday, the New Hampshire Department of Justice and Department of Safety said they are providing a further update on the state’s vehicle inspection program in response to the federal District Court’s Jan. 27, 2026 preliminary injunction order:

• The vehicle inspection program is suspended until further notice. 
• Inspection stations will no longer be authorized to issue state inspection stickers and vehicles will not be required to obtain an annual state inspection at this time. 
• Drivers are still responsible under current law to ensure that any vehicle driven in New Hampshire is safe to operate, regardless of the status of the inspection program

Following the Executive Council’s denial of the Department of Safety’s request to extend the termination date of the State’s vehicle inspection contract with Gordon-Darby NHOST, Inc, the State currently has no approved vendor to operate the State’s vehicle inspection program, the release said.

It was Gordon-Darby NHOST that sued the state in federal court arguing it couldn’t end the inspection program because it would have ended emissions testing, which would violate the federal Clean Air Act.

“As a result, and after careful review of the legal implications under current state statutes of the lack of
an approved vendor, the vehicle inspection program is suspended until further notice. Inspection stations will no longer be authorized to issue state inspection stickers and vehicles will not be required to obtain an annual state inspection at this time,” Friday’s news release said.

“The Department of Safety and the Department of Environmental Services are exploring all options to continue to comply with the Court’s order but currently lack the legal authority to operate a vehicle inspection program given that there is no approved vendor for the program.

“In addition, the State is continuing to seek relief from the Court’s order and has filed a Notice of Appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals as well as a motion requesting that the Court stay its preliminary injunction order. 

“While the vehicle inspection program is currently suspended, the status of the program remains subject to change as the legal landscape continues to evolve.  The State will update its public guidance on vehicle inspections as more information becomes available and will provide additional regulatory flexibility as needed in the event of future changes, including further deadline extensions should the program resume.

“At this time, the public is reminded that they are responsible under current law to ensure that any vehicle driven in New Hampshire is safe to operate, regardless of the status of the inspection program.  Vehicle safety requirements are set forth in New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) Chapter 266,” the news release said.