America East Basketball News & Notes: We're Off and Running

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College basketball is back, Last Monday, the road to the conference tournament got underway. In America East, eight of the nine programs earned wins. The UMass Lowell River Hawks were the only team to finish Week 1 2-0. Let’s take a look at how Week 1 went in the league.

Opening night saw every team in action with four of the nine teams getting win number one. The best of those wins took place in Birmingham, AL. as the Vermont Catamounts (1-2) defeated UAB by a 67-62 score. Vermont was terrific with the basketball committing only five turnovers for the game. Three players finished in double-figures with TJ Hurley leading the way with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-8 from 3-point land. Vermont got a big boost from their 3-point defense as they held the Blazers to 0-10 from deep. A nice way to start their defense of their regular season title.

The win by Vermont was especially good since it came on the road and was against a UAB team that was a #12 seed and was part of last season’s NCAA tournament. The UMass Lowell River Hawks also beat a team that was part of last year’s tourney. On Friday night, the River Hawks beat the St. Peter’s Peacocks by an 81-74 score. 5th year Sr Quinton Mincy was huge for the home team as he dropped 27 points on the Peacocks. He was even better at getting to the foul line as he was fouled 14 times during the game and was 14-of-16 from the free-throw line. Transfer guard Quincy Clark had 11 points and 7 assists in a starting role. The River Hawks forced St. Peter’s into 15 turnovers. This is the third straight year that the River Hawks have started 2-0.

The Maine Black Bears (2-1) got a nice win on Sunday by beating Brown out of the Ivy League, 69-67 on the road. Jaden Clayton had 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting in 35 minutes of play. He was one of three Black Bears players to have a double-figure game. Maine was good at the free throw line hitting on 11-of-15 attempts. They outscored Brown in the paint 32-28.

Bryant University (1-1) suffered a tough overtime loss at home on Friday night to Siena College 90-88. Rafael Pinzon had a big game with 33 points on 9-of-17 shooting, 5-of-9 from deep, and 10-of-12 from the FT line. He got help from both Barry Evans (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Earl Timberlake (11 points, 11 rebounds) who recorded double-doubles. One reason for the loss by the Bulldogs was turnovers as they had 23 of them. Pinzon had 7 by himself. That was the most on the team. The other problem was Justice Shoats who came off the Siena bench and scored 31 points in 39 minutes. He was 11-of-21 from the field, 7-of-8 from the foul line, and 2-of-2 from deep.

This week America East Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week both come from UMass Lowell. The player is Quinton Mincy. In the two games played by the River Hawks, Mincy averaged 23.5 points and four rebounds. The 27 points vs St.Peter’s was a career-high. On Monday, he had 20 points and seven rebounds vs Rivier College. Mincy now has nine career 20+ points games. Last year’s 6th Man of the Year winner received his first Player of the Year award.

Martin Somerville is the Rookie of the Week winner. The Bowie, MD. native averaged 11 points, 2.5 assists, 2 boards, and two steals in his first week of Division I play for UMass Lowell. Against Rivier, Somerville had 17 points and shot 5-of-7 from 3-point land. It’s his first weekly award.

We have started our weekly look at the America East. Each week we will look around the league to keep track of what is happening and who is doing it.