America East Basketball Conference: News & Notes

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Conference play is finally here, and three games into league play a familiar name sits at top of the league standings. A surprise or two can also be found. It’s how the first set of games in the America East played out. Here is some of what else has taken place.

As expected, the Vermont Catamounts are where you thought they be, at the top of the conference standings. There was some concern that when their best player, Sophomore Anthony Lamb went down with an injury, that the Cats would come back to the pack. Since the injury, Vermont has gone 4-0 erasing any of those thoughts. The Cats have won 25 consecutive conference games and their margin of victory is 14.8 during the streak with 20 of the 25 wins coming by double digits.

The fans have voted @UVMmbb’s Drew Urquhart as the top performer from Monday. The senior had a career-high 21 pts. as he helped secure Vermont’s 25th consecutive victory over an America East opponent. #AEHoops pic.twitter.com/bJ79WfGcoH

— #AEHoops (@AEHoopsNews) January 16, 2018

The #AEHoops player of the week for Jan.8 will be shared between Maine’s Aaron Calixte and Vermont Ernie Duncan. Duncan had a huge game vs UMass Lowell on Jan.4, going for 32 points on 10-for-11 shooting, 5-6 from three-point range and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. Calixte is the best free throw shooter in the early stages of the season at .900, 63-for-70 in 18 games. UNH ‘s Josh Hopkins earned his second-straight #AEHoops Rookie of the week honors after averaging 10.0 points per game. The Wildcats are off to a 3-1 start in America East.

UMBC has tied its Division 1 mark with eight consecutive home victories with their 8-0 start. The all-time record for consecutive wins at home is 14, bridging the 1978-79 and 1979-80 NCAA Division II campaigns. The Retrievers are third in the nation in both made treys per game (11.7) and total three-point field goals made (211).

Daniel Akin of @UMBC_MBB is the #AEHoops Rookie of the Week after contributing 11 pts. & 7 rebs. in UMBC's win at Maine; Averaged 6.5 pts. & 5.5 rebs. in a 1-1 week. pic.twitter.com/FUU8pPltnd

— America East (@AmericaEast) January 15, 2018

Red-shirt Junior Josh Gantz, of UMass Lowell, has been coming on of late. After averaging 5.5 points per game in his first eight games of the year, he has averaged 11.3 in his last seven. His field goal percentage has improved from 42% (17-41) to 54% (31-57). Additionally, 26 of his 36 assists and 11 of his 15 threes this year have come in the most recent seven outings.

Next week we will have more from the American East Conference.