America East Basketball News & Notes: Bryant Takes Down Syracuse

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For the second time in the month of November, the America East Conference has posted a major win. This one comes from the new kids on the block as Bryant College went up to the dome at Syracuse and took down the Orangemen 73-72. It’s the second win for the league vs the ACC. Wins like these will make conference season all that more interesting when it gets started next month. Here is more from the league.

The UMass Lowell River Hawks are off to their best start in the program’s history at the division one level. Their 73-59 win over Stonehill on Sunday improved them to 6-1 on the young season. In their seven games to date, they have scored at least 89 points in four of the seven games played. It should be pointed out that two of those games were vs division three opponents. The team is averaging 88.3 points per game which is 12th best in the nation. The River Hawks are 21st in the nation in field goal percentage defense and ninth in total rebounds. This is also the oldest team since the move to D1 as this year’s roster features 11 upperclassmen.

Bryant College (5-1) is off to a great start in their new league. The win over Syracuse was generated by the starting five, as four of the five finished the game in double figures with Antwan Walker posting a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds. The game had five ties and eight lead changes with most of those coming in the last four minutes of the game. In the non-conference schedule, Bryant now has wins over Florida International, Detroit Mercy, and Syracuse. Not a bad way to make a statement in year one of your new home.

The defending champs, the Vermont Catamounts (2-7), are off to a rough start. The non-conference schedule that coach John Becker put together has a lot to do with the record being five games under .500. Do not believe when all is said and done that the Catamounts will stay under .500. Their trip to Nassau, Bahamas did not go as planned. They went 1-2 with a win over Ball State in their opener, then had losses to both University of North Carolina Wilmington on Saturday. This was followed by a loss to Long Beach State University on Sunday. Putting the ball in the basket continues to be a problem for Vermont. They shot only 36% from the field (19-of-53) in the loss to LBU 78-58. In Saturday’s loss to UNCW, they shot the ball better at 48% (22-of-46 48%) but lost a 10-point halftime lead and were outscored by 12 in the second half. This week the Catamounts are home to face Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, then go to Merrimack next Sunday.

Another team off to a bit of a rough start is NJIT (1-5). Last week the team went 1-1 with a win over Sacred Heart 85-75 and then a loss to Wagner on Sunday, 62-57. In the win over Sacred Heart, the Highlanders shot 50% from the field with Miles Coleman leading the way with 33 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 from 3-point land. NJIT had four players in double figures. In the loss to Wagner, Kevin Osawe had a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds. He was one of three starters in double figures. The Highlanders’ problem in this one was 3-point shooting where they were just 29% at 5-of-17.

The weekly awards went like this. There were Co-Players of the Week in Antwan Walker of Bryant for his performances against both Detroit Mercy and Syracuse. He posted double-doubles in both games. Against Detroit Mercy, he went for 13 points and 10 rebounds and vs the Orangemen, it was 18 points and 11 boards. For the week, he averaged 15.5 points and 10.2 rebounds. The other Player of the Week is River Hawks big man Abdoul Karim Coulibaly. He averaged 16.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in a 2-0 week for UMass Lowell. He shot 79% from the field at 15-for-19. Last Wednesday night at Brown, he shot 8-for-9 from the field for 18 points to go with seven rebounds. On Sunday, he recorded his third double-double of the season with 14 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Stonehill. Coulibaly is in the top 30 in the country with three double-doubles and is 11th in the country in offensive rebounding with 20.

Jonathan Beagle is the Rookie of the Week for the second time in three weeks. He posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds last Saturday vs Florida Atlantic University. For the three games played last week by the Great Danes, he averaged 10 points, and 6.7 rebounds. He is ninth in the league in blocked shots with one a game, six blocks total in eight games.

That’s a look at America East basketball for this week. We will be back with more from AE next week.