Doucette's America East Basketball Notes

Read Time:1 Minute, 58 Second

With the America East regular season now down to its final day this coming Saturday, here’s one final look at how things stand with the conference tournament set to begin on March 1.

With Wednesday night’s win over Albany, the Vermont Catamounts have locked up home court for as far as they go in the tournament. With a victory in their season finale vs Stony Brook on Saturday, the Cats will finish with an unbeaten conference record. They would become the first team to go 16-0 in league history.

Going into the final week of the regular season there were five teams that had at least 17 wins. It is the second time the league has had as many as five teams with that win total, and one of only six leagues in the county that have five seventeen win teams.

Two teams in the conference got off to rough starts but found ways to turn their years around. Albany started 0-3 in league play, heading into their game in Burlington, Vermont won four straight and nine of eleven. The other team is Stony Brook, who after a 0-4 start to their season have gone 17-6 with a six-game win streak and 13 of their last 15 games.

The conference has co-players of the week. Devonte Campbell of Albany earned his first player of the week honor this season. He averaged a double- double of 17.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in helping his team to a 2-0 week. He shared the award with UNH’s Jaleen Smith as he contributed 20.0 points 10 rebounds, 5 assists in two wins last week. For Smith, it was his second time being honored this season.

The Freshman of the week is no surprise. Anthony Lamb of Vermont wins the award for a league-best seventh time. Last Wednesday night at Tsongas Center in Lowell, Lamb went for 24 points on 8 of 11 shooting in just 24 minutes of action. He would seem to be a lock for Freshman of the year honors.

The conference boast eight student-athletes who have surpassed the 1,000 point plateau this year. They are Binghamton’s Marlon Beck and Willie Rodriguez, UMASS Lowell Jahad Thomas, New Hampshire’s Daniel Dion, Tanner Leissner, Jaleen Smith, and Vermont’s duo of Trae Bell-Haynes and Kurt Steidl.