UMass Lowell River Hawks Gear Up for 31-game Slate in 2021-22

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LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell Men’s Basketball Head Coach Pat Duquette announced his squad’s complete, 31-game schedule for the 2021-22 season on Thursday. The River Hawks open the new season at home on Tuesday, November 9 against Rivier before embarking on a five-game road swing that starts at Dayton of the Atlantic 10 Conference on Saturday, Nov. 13.

“The players and staff are thrilled to be playing a full schedule of games this year,” said Duquette. “One of the many lessons we learned last year was to cherish every opportunity we get to compete. We are looking forward to building on last year’s successful run to our conference championship game.”

Coming off of that historic campaign last season that saw the team in the America East title game for the first time ever, the River Hawks have put together a competitive non-conference slate for 2021-22 that will prepare them well for another strong year in league play.

The squad’s five-game November road trip features a pair of contests at the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase at Mohegan Sun, including a matchup against Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State (Nov. 16). The team also heads south to take on George Washington (Nov. 19) and travels across the state for the annual Kennedy Cup matchup at UMass Amherst (Nov. 24) during the first month of the season.

UMass Lowell wraps up non-conference action in December with home tilts against Brown (Dec. 1), Sacred Heart (Dec. 19), and St. Francis Brooklyn (Dec. 23).

The America East schedule will return to a home-and-home format against each of the league’s other nine opponents in 2021-22. The River Hawks make the trek out to Binghamton to open conference play on Sunday, January 2 before welcoming NJIT to Lowell for the team’s home opener on Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Also in the month of January, UMass Lowell hosts Hartford (Jan. 15) and Maine (Jan. 19) for its first of two sets of back-to-back home games in the 2021-22 season. The contest against the Hawks will be the highly anticipated rematch of the 2020-21 America East Championship that pitted the fourth and seventh seeds against each other for the first time in the history of the conference.

The road warriors’ second and final two-game homestand of the year follows in February with contests against Binghamton (Feb. 19) and Stony Brook (Feb. 23). The River Hawks will then wrap up the regular season against New Hampshire on Tuesday, March 1.

The top eight teams in the standings will qualify for the 2021-22 America East Playoffs, which are set to begin with the quarterfinal round on Saturday, March 5. The semifinals will follow on Tuesday, March 9 to determine the championship matchup on Saturday, March 12. All rounds will be played at the higher seed.