America East Basketball News & Notes: What a Week for the League

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The second week of college basketball turned out to be one of the best weeks of hoops in the history of the America East Conference. Overall, the league finished the week with a record of 12-8. Individually, there were some great wins that should help this conference come March. There was UMass Lowell with a Power-5 win and almost a second one. Bryant knocked off a team that was a part of last year’s Final Four. UMBC hosted and won their tournament. Maine and Vermont both made it to the championship game of the tournaments they were playing in. America East showed up last week in a big way. Let’s take a look at a great week of basketball.

On Saturday night, the Bryant College Bulldogs (2-3) made the trip to Boca Raton, Florida to meet Florida Atlantic University. It was last March that FAU shocked the college basketball world by making it to the Final Four. That was last year, this is a new season. The Bulldogs, backed by double-doubles from Sherif Gross-Bullock (19 points, 11 rebounds) and Earl Timberlake (13 points, 12 rebounds) took down the #10 team in the country 61-52. The victory was Bryant’s first-ever win over a top-10 team and first-ever over a ranked team in their Division 1 history. It also snapped a 19-game home winning streak for FAU. The Bulldogs trailed by four at the half. In the second half, Bryant outscored FAU by twelve to pick up the victory. For Sherif Gross-Bullock, the week ended with him being named the America East Player of the Week. He averaged 23.5 points, eight boards, and three assists in a 1-1 week for the Bulldogs. For the week, Gross-Bullock was 14-of-28 from the field, 8-of-19 from threes, and 11-of-13 from the free throw line. In the early going, Sherif is third in the league in scoring at 19.6 a game and is fifth in rebounding at 6.6 a game.

The UMass Lowell River Hawks (3-1) made the trip to ACC country to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Tuesday night. Sparked by a 51-point second half, the River Hawks defeated the Yellow Jackets by a 74-71 score. It was the second win vs an ACC team with the last one coming back in 2015 vs Boston College. Both of these wins came on the road. The River Hawks backcourt of Ayinde Hikim and Brayden O’Connor led the way. Hikim had 24 points, and O’Connor had a career-best 18. UMass Lowell almost made it two-for-two vs Power-5 teams. On Thursday night, the River Hawks had a double-digit lead with 1:55 left vs Arizona State. However, five River Hawks turnovers in that span to go along with the Sun Devils making their last seven shots from the field helped them to escape with a 71-69 win over the River Hawks.UMass Lowell is now 2-1 on a six-game road trip.

UMBC went 3-0 last week including winning their own tournament over the weekend. On Friday, the Retrievers (3-2) were led by Khydarius Smith’s career-high 25 points as UMBC defeated Sacred Heart 85-80. Smith was 9-of-11 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. Smith got help from junior guard Marcus Banks Jr. who had 21 points and four rebounds. A big reason for the win was the advantage in fast break points. UMBC held a 33-12 lead on Sacred Heart. On Sunday, the Retrievers won their third in a row by beating Loyola of Maryland 94-79. UMBC was down by seven in the second half before coming back in a big way to get the win. Junior guard Devan Snapp had a career-best 18 points and seven rebounds in the win. Smith added another 18 points, while Banks also chipped in with 13 points. The Retrievers used a 59-point second half to pull away for the win.

Maine (3-3) took a trip to Florida to play in the First Coast Classic last weekend. The Black Bears made it to the championship game on Saturday night. They got there based on back-to-back wins over Northwestern St. 78-65 and Presbyterian College 80-66. In game one of the tournament, the Black Bears placed four in double-figures to get the victory. Al Lopez led the way with a career-high 19 points. He was 6-of-10 from the field. Kellen Tynes with 14, Ja’shonte Wright-McLeish with 14, and Peter Filipovity with 11 points and nine rebounds also were in double figures. In the win over Presbyterian College, Filipovity led the way with a career-high 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field. He was also 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. Tynes had 18 points, and Lopez had 17. In the championship game vs North Florida, the Black Bears came up short as they fell by a 67-58 score. Tynes had 20 points, six boards, six assists, and four steals. Adam Cisse also had 10 points. In the title game, three-point shooting abandoned them as they shot only .125 from the field (2-of-16).

Vermont (4-1) went to the Myrtle Beach Invitational and found themselves in the title game. They started the tournament with wins over the College of Charleston and St.Louis University. In the Charleston game, the Catamounts overcame a 15-point deficit to win 73-64. They would tie the game at 53-53 with six minutes left on a three by Aaron Deloney before finally taking the lead with three minutes left on an offensive putback by lleri Ayo-Faleye. Matt Veretto finished the game with a game-high 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting including two from distance. TJ Long had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Shamir Bogues had 11 points. In the victory over St. Louis, Vermount shot the ball very well. They went 29-of-52 (55.8%) and were 11-of-24 (45.7%) from deep to get the win 78-68. Long had 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Veretto and Bogues with 14 apiece. In the finals vs Liberty, Vermont would cut the lead to one at 61-60 with four minutes to go. However, Liberty finished the game on a 10-1 run to get the win. Bogues finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. Deloney had 13 points, TJ Hurley chipped in 11, and Long with 10 rounded out the scoring.

The Binghamton Bearcats have won three in a row. Last week they took care of Loyola and Marist. The best performance of the week may belong to UNH’s Clarence Daniels who went for 36 points on 10-of-15 from the field with nine boards in the Wildcats win over Brown last Tuesday night. Sebastian Robinson of NJIT is this week’s AE Rookie of the Week. He had 17 points and six assists in a loss to America University 87-73.

That’s a look at a great week in America East. Next week we will be back with more as the league has 17 games on the schedule.