America East Basketball News & Notes: Vermont is on a Roll

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With three games left in the league regular season, the playoff picture is starting to take shape. A third team has secured a top-4 seed in the conference tournament. The Vermont Catamounts have put on a late-season charge and earned themselves a home game in the quarterfinals of the America East playoffs. Wins over Bryant and UMass Lowell have them home for the first round of the tournament. There is still one spot left to be filled before we know the matchups for the quarterfinals begin. So let’s see how this looks with three games left on the schedule.

The Catamounts (17-11, 10-3) have now won six in a row, and with last week’s wins, are now just a game out of first place. AE Player of the Week, TJ Hurley led the way. In the two big wins, Hurley averaged 18.5 points and shot 50% from 3-point land (7-of-14). It was his big 3-point make that helped to defeat Bryant last Thursday night by a 59-55 score. Then on Saturday vs the River Hawks, Hurley went for 20 points and got some help from Sam Alamuto who had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds. Against UMass Lowell, the Catamounts are now 22-4 all-time. Vermont hits the road for two games this week at NJIT on Thursday, then to UMBC on Saturday.

One team that has picked the wrong time to take a bit of a slide is the Maine Black Bears (16-12, 8-5) they now find themselves in third place two games back of Vermont for second. They are trying to stop a three-game losing streak. Last week, the Black Bears made the upstate New York trip and got little results. A loss to UAlbany 79-68 on Thursday night, was followed by a 71-69 loss to Binghamton on Saturday. Maine plays their final road game of the season on Thursday night at UNH. They end the schedule at home with games vs Bryant on Saturday, then on March 4 against UMass Lowell. The Black Bears need wins down the stretch and they can clinch a top-4 seed on Thursday night with a win and a UAlbany loss.

The Bearcats (15-14, 7-7) have won three in a row and at the moment, they have the final home spot for the quarterfinals. They are tied in the loss column with UAlbany and are one game ahead of both New Hampshire and UMass Lowell. Binghamton has only two games left. On Saturday they visit the River Hawks, a team they beat back on February 6 66-54. Then on March 4, they are home to NJIT.

The team with possibly the toughest schedule left is UAlbany (14-14, 6-7). They started a three-game season-ending road trip on Thursday night at UMBC. The first time these two met was on January 23 at UAlbany and the Retrievers won it in overtime by a 92-67 score. The Great Danes then finished with games at NJIT on Saturday and at Vermont next Tuesday night. Earlier this year, they defeated the Highlanders 68-62 and lost to the Catamounts 68-62.

There are Co-Rookie of the Week in the league. Querin Duncan of NJIT had 18 points and three rebounds in the Highlanders’ lone game of last week. He was 4-of-4 from 3-point land as well. For the tenth time this season, UMass Lowell guard Martin Somerville was also named. He averaged 14.5 points, 7.5 assists, and 3.5 steals for the River Hawks. He had a double-double of 18 points and 13 assists in their win over UMBC last Thursday night. The 10 weekly honors tie him with Boston University Tunji Awojobi for the most in league history.

There you have it. We will be back next week with a look at the final night of the regular season.