America East Basketball News & Notes

The non-conference portion of the league schedule is over. The America East teams, as a group, did rather well. The league boasts nine wins over Power 5 and other conferences. Six of these wins came against Atlantic 10 programs. One win apiece vs the SEC, ACC, and the Missouri Valley Conference. On New Year’s Eve, the league went three for three in games played with Hartford, Albany, and UMBC getting wins.

On Saturday, January 5, the league schedule gets underway. Four games are on tap with Stony Brook at UMass Lowell, Maine at UMBC, UNH at Binghampton, and Vermont at UAlbany.

For the second straight week, there are co-players of the week and for the second week in a row, Christian Lutete is one of those players. The redshirt Junior had 29 points and nine rebounds in helping the Riverhawks record their first road win of the season last Saturday at Sacred Heart. Lutete is having a great season for UMass Lowell. He is fourth in scoring at 17.4 a game and is second in rebounding at 8.1 a night.

Andrew Garcia of Stony Brook, is the other player of the week. In last Friday night’s win at Northern Iowa, Garcia dropped 24 points (a career high) to go along with six boards. This is the second time this season and in his career that Garcia has been named #AEHoops player of the week.

The #AEHoops Rookie of the week is Jules Moon of the Seawolves. In that road win at Northern Iowa, Moon went for 14 points (career high) and six rebounds. Moon also recorded four steals in the game. This is Moon’s first honor of the season and his career.

The UMass Lowell vs Stony Brook game on Saturday features two teams that find themselves at the top of the league stat sheets. The Seawolves (12-3) are first in win margin at 5.7 a game while ranking second in offense at 74.9 points a game. Their defense is tough to score on as they ranked second in the league giving up 69.2 PPG.

The Riverhawks (8-7), are first in assists/turnovers ratio at 1.13 a ballgame. They are number one in assists at 17.53 a game. Senior Ryan Jones is the top assist man at 4.3 every time out.  UMass Lowell is #1 in field goal percentage at .492 scoring 84.3 points per game, also number one in the league. However, the defense has been a bit of a problem for the team as Lowell is dead last in this category giving up 80.5 points a game

The Hartford Hawks (7-8), are using senior leadership to get their year headed in the right direction. Two of their seniors are one and two in minutes played. J.R.  Lynch leads in minutes played at 37.1, teammate Jason Dunne is right behind in second with 36.5. The pair is also one and two in free throw percentage while the team is the best free throw shooting team in the conference at .772%. Their opponents are shooting at .733%.

Dunne is also dangerous from three-point range as well. He leads the league in 3-Point FG % at .440 (48-105). Dunne takes 3.2 three a night which is also number one. His 48 makes from behind the arc are the most in the league.

Winning will do wonders at the gate. Stony Brook leads the league in attendance at 2,604 at home. For the third straight week, the Seawolves are ranked in the Colleginsider.com Mid-Major poll at # 16. Their seven wins are the most on the road by any team in the country and their twelve wins in non-conference play are the most they have won since becoming a Division one program.