America East Basketball News & Notes: Road Warriors

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On Saturday, the road to the America East playoffs got underway. Four games were played on Saturday with three of the four wins being by the road team. While no teams have made the Associated Press Top 25, teams from the league are making their way into the smaller ones. In the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, Vermont is still there at #24. In the Small Conference Top 25, three teams are in. Vermont is at #8, UMass Lowell is at #11, and Bryant is at #23. The University of New Hampshire left the poll after their loss last Saturday. Here is how the first weekend went in the league.

Before conference play started, there were two non-league games left to play. Vermont won over Brown and gave the league 68 non-league wins. That is the most since the 2008-09 season. Overall, the America East Conference went 68-58 in non-league games. The day we had been waiting for finally arrived on Saturday. Opening day of the conference schedule. The only team that did not play was Binghamton. The remaining eight teams went ahead and tipped off the season. After four good games, look for this to be the norm as the year plays out.

UMass Lowell headed to New Hampshire to face the Wildcats (8-6-0-1) and the River Hawks (10-4, 1-0) placed three starters in double-figures. They were led by sophomore guard Brayden O’Connor with a career-high 23 points. He got help from starters Max Brooks (17 points, 8 rebounds) and Cam Morris III (12 points, 9 rebounds). However, the biggest contributor was Quinton Mincy off the bench, who put together his first double-double of the year of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Ten of those boards were on the defensive end and he was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. The team was 24-of-30 80% from the FT line. The River Hawks scored 40 points in the paint and grabbed 15 offensive boards. This is the sixth win on the road for UMass Lowell this season. The Wildcats also had three in double-figures led by Clarence Daniels with his sixth double-double of the year tied for 25th in the country. His 22 points and 13 boards, 12 defensive, kept his team in the game. However, the Wildcats were just 7-of-24 from 3-point land (29.2%). They were badly outrebounded 32-24, and three of their starters fouled out which made it hard down the stretch The game was tied four times with 10 lead changes, and in the end, the River Hawks got the win 82-75.

Bryant College (9-7,-1-0) made its way to Baltimore, MD to take on the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (5-11, 0-1). Bulldogs forward Sherif Gross-Bullock had a monster game of 41 points in 40 minutes of game action. He was a one-man wrecking crew, going 16-of-24 from the field, 7-of-12 from the 3-point line, and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. The Retrievers have had a tough time defending lately and had no answer for Gross-Bullock. Bryant, down three at the break, busted the game wide open in the second half outscoring UMBC by a 48-31 margin to get the 81-67 win. Daniel Rivera had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Earl Timberlake chipped in with 12 points and seven rebounds. For UMBC, it was Dion Brown (22 points, 11 rebounds), 16 from Bryce Johnson. and 16 off the bench from Marcus Banks. One number that does jump out at you is the Bulldogs with seven more steals than the Retrievers (12 to 5) and UMBC with only eight assists on 26 made baskets. More on Gross-Bullock later.

In UAlbany’s (9-7, 1-0) win over NJIT (4-9, 0-1), sophomore forward Jonathan Beagle recorded his sixth double-double of 19 points and 16 boards. He is tied for 25th in the country with those double-doubles. He was one of four starters in double-figures as the Great Danes defeated the Highlanders 79-73. UAlbany was down one at the break, but in the second half outscored NJIT by a 45-38 margin to get the win. The game had four ties and 10 lead changes. Each team had two technical fouls called against them. NJIT had a big advantage off the bench, 38-5. In the end, UAlbany just hit a few more shots at the right time to get the win. The Great Danes won their league opener for the first time since the 2019-20 season. The nine wins eclipse last year’s win total.

The defending champs, the Vermont Catamounts (11-5, 1-0) were the only home team with a win. However, it was not easy. The Maine Black Bears (8-8, 0-1) pushed Vermont all game long. Points in the paintturned out to be a big key as the Catamounts had a good lead of 44-28. Bench points also were huge with Vermont holding a 24-8 advantage and it gave them the win. Each team had three in double figures. Thirteen of those bench points came from Nick Fiorillo. The game had one tie and five lead changes. For Vermont, the win was the 16th straight versus an American East team. Ileri Ayo-Faleye had 14 to lead the way for Vermont.

This week, Vermont will host UMBC in a game that will be seen on ESPNU at 7 PM. Binghamton’s first game is set for Thursday on the road at UAlbany. Maine heads to UNH in the 224th edition of the Border Battle and UMass Lowell returns home to face NJIT.

The America East Player of the Week is Sherif Gross-Bullock of Bryant. His 41-point effort vs UMBC was a career-high. He was 16-of-24 from the field and added six assists and four steals. This is the third time he has won the award. The Rookie of the Week is Tariq Francis who scored 22 points off the bench for the Highlanders in their loss to UAlbany. He also had six assists. This is the third award for him, all coming in the last four weeks. NJIT has won the Rookie Award now six times.

Next week we will look at how week two of America East play goes.