America East Basketball News & Notes: League Continues to Post Impressive Wins

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The America East Conference is having a whale of a non-conference season. The league posted its third win over the ACC and picked one up vs the Atlantic-10. The resume that this conference is putting together will be a big help come March. It also will make for an exciting conference year when it begins at the end of December. Here is some of what took place last week.

The ACC may want to think twice about scheduling games vs AE teams next year. That’s because for the third time this season the ACC fell to an America East school. It’s the second time Boston College has ended up taking one on the chin. Earlier this month, it was the Maine Black Bears that defeated the Eagles. Last week, it was the UNH Wildcats that got the job done. The 74-71 OT win was all about this week’s AE Player of the Week Clarence Daniels who went for a double-double of 34 points and 14 rebounds. Daniels and Nick Johnson, who had 20 points, combined for 54 of the 74 points the Wildcats scored. They were also the only two players in double figures for the night. Daniels was unstoppable knocking down big shots all game long including a three-pointer as time was winding down to send the game into overtime. It is the kind of win the Wildcats (3-6) needed to get back on track.

The hottest team in the league stayed that way last week. The UMass Lowell River Hawks (11-1) continued their best start in program history since 2002-03 with a perfect road trip going 3-0. They got wins over Sacred Heart, and LIU, and saved the best for last a win over UMass Amherst last Thursday night. The win over the Minutemen was their first win over them as a division one program. Senior guard Ayinde Hikim was in attack mode the entire night playing 38 minutes and scoring 23 points and a career-high seven assists, The River Hawks held off a late charge from the Minutemen to secure the in-state victory. UMass Lowell heads into their road game at Rhode Island with a net ranking of 57 and they are also the first team in AE history to start at 11-1. Their nine-game winning streak is the third-best in the nation at this time. They are 10-0 when leading at the half and when they score 70+ points.

There is the other end of the spectrum that can not be ignored. The Highlanders of NJIT have gotten off to a tough start of 1-9 and they have lost five in a row including a road loss on Sunday at Fairleigh Dickinson University, 73-71. The game featured nine ties and five lead changes. The game was tied at 71-71 with 28 seconds left. FDU won the game off of an offensive rebound by Joe Munden Jr. A layup with two seconds left turned out to be the game-winning basket. The Highlanders are last in the league in offense scoring 61.7 points a game. They are next to last in margin at -8.5. Their defense is allowing 70.2 points a game. Things will need to change for NJIT to be a factor this season.

Another team that is struggling is the Albany Great Danes (3-8) losers of four in a row. Albany is coming off a tough loss on the road at Providence 93-55 on Saturday. The Great Danes could shoot only 28.4% from the field (19-of-67) and 20% from threes (6-of-30). They are the worst defense in the league giving up 76.6 points a night. They also have the worst margin at -9.6. One bright spot is Gerald Drumgoode who is second in 3-point FG made with 32 in 11 games (2.9 per game) They have some work to do to improve.

One reason why the Maine Black Bears are 6-4 is the play of guard Kellen Tynes. He leads the leads in steals with 34 in ten games for an average of 3.4 a game. In Sunday’s win at Merrimack, he had five steals to go along with 12 points, and four assists. He is also fifth in blocked shots (nine in ten games), seventh in scoring at 15.1 a game, third in minutes with 33 a game, and fourth in assists with 3.9 a contest. He has been a big plus in Chris Markwood’s first year as Maine’s head coach.

As mentioned, Clarence Daniels was this week’s AE Player of the Week. His monster game at BC was not the only reason why Daniels earned his first weekly award. He recorded a second double-double in a loss to St. John over the weekend. He went for 11 points and 11 rebounds in the loss to the Redstorm. Daniels is third in scoring averaging 16.1 points. He leads in rebounding at 11.7 a night. He is fourth in steals with 14 in nine games (1.6 a game), and leads in minutes played with 35 a night.

The AE Rookie of the Week is Vermont guard TJ Hurley. In the win over Patriot League for Colgate, Hurley came off the bench and shot a perfect 5-for-5 and scored 15 points, and added three rebounds. Hurley is becoming a main weapon off the bench for coach John Becker’s Catamounts.

Next week we will be one week away from the start of league play. We will have more from America East.