America East Tournament Recaps
The play-in round on Friday night set up Saturday’s quarterfinal matchups, with No. 9 UMBC edging No. 8 New Hampshire 78-73 behind a career-high 28 points from freshman Brian Hodges, and No. 7 Stony Brook ending No. 10 Hartford’s season with a 66-46 blowout of the Hawks, holding the Hawks below 35% shooting and outrebounding them 40-30. New Hampshire finishes the season 9-19, while Hartford closes the season at 8-20. The stage was set for quarterfinals, which saw two upsets.
Quarterfinal recaps
No. 5 Binghamton 76, No. 4 Albany 70
Binghamton broke a 9-9 tie with a run of nine unanswered points and never trailed after that, holding off Albany for its first America East Tournament win, 76-70 over the Great Danes.
Troy Hailey scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the first half as the Bearcats led by eight at the break. They would stretch the lead to 14 in the second half, but Albany mounted several rallies, getting within 73-70 before three free throws and a turnover killed any final chances.
Andre Heard had 18 points and 7 assists for Binghamton and Sebastian Hermenier added 13 points and seven rebounds. Albany (13-15) was led by Brent Wilson’s 18 points, while Jamar Wilson and Lucious Jordan each had 13 but were a combined 9-24 from the field.
No. 1 Vermont 76, No. 9 UMBC 61
Taylor Coppenrath scored 33 points and T.J. Sorrentine scored 20 as the nation’s top scoring duo carried Vermont to a 76-61 quarterfinal victory over UMBC. The Catamounts won despite being outrebounded 33-24 by the Retrievers (11-18), as they took advantage of 15 UMBC turnovers, made 10-of-23 three-pointers and made more free throws (18-21) than UMBC attempted (9-12).
Hodges closed out his freshman year by leading the Retrievers with 14 points and six rebounds, and sophomore Chris Pugh had 11 points.
No. 2 Northeastern 90, No. 7 Stony Brook 79
Jose Juan Barea scored 41 points, the second-highest total in conference tournament history, and Northeastern shot over 56% from the field to beat Stony Brook 90-79.
Barea was 17-32 from the field and had eight assists, and Marcus Barnes added 16 points as the stellar backcourt led the way. Janon Cole had a solid 13-point, 9-rebound outing off the bench for the Huskies, who were outrebounded 46-34. Mike Popoko led Stony Brook (12-17) with 22 points and 10 rebounds to close out the season with strong play, while Cori Spencer closed his career with a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds. It was the final game for Stony Brook head coach Nick Macarchuk, who is retiring and will take on another position in the athletic department.
No. 6 Maine 47, No. 3 Boston University 45
With three seconds left, Chris Markwood hit a three-pointer to give Maine a 47-45 upset of Boston University.
The game was every bit the defensive struggle that the low score would imply. Neither team shot above 35% from the field and the teams combined for 33 turnovers. Maine got 11 points each from Mark Flavin and Joe Campbell, who also added ten and seven rebounds, respectively. Rashad Bell led the Terriers (20-8) with 18 points and eight rebounds and classmate Chaz Carr had 12.
Semifinal recaps
Vermont 76, Binghamton 65
The Catamounts’ two stars once again carried them to a victory, as Coppenrath (34) and Sorrentine (25) combined to nearly outscore Binghamton all by themselves.
Both teams had leads during the first half, with Vermont (23-6) taking the lead for good with a 17-6 run to close out the first half. Binghamton would get within 41-37, but an 18-5 Vermont run put it out of reach, as a late run of 10 unanswered Bearcat points would get them no closer than nine.
Binghamton (12-17) was led by Alex Adediran’s career-high 21 points in his final game, while Heard had 20 points on 8-22 shooting.
Northeastern 86, Maine 73
Northeastern survived a furious second half rally by Maine, going on a late run of 11 straight to break the game open again en route to an 86-73 win.
Strong shooting and some defense helped the Huskies open up a 45-27 halftime lead, scoring 34 of the final 29 points of the half. They would increase the lead to 52-31 early in the second half, when Kevin Reed and Maine heated up. Reed, who had a game-high 28 points, hit six three-pointers during a stretch of just over ten minutes where the Black Bears equaled the 31 points they had scored prior to it, the last one cutting the lead to 63-62. That was when the Huskies (21-8) went on their decisive run, and after the run was snapped by a Joe Campbell three-pointer, the lead was never in single digits again.
Marcus Barnes had a season-high 27 points to lead the Huskies, Shawn James had 21, eight rebounds and five blocks, and Barea had 20 points and 11 assists. Maine (14-15), which committed 19 turnovers and shot 37.5% from the field, got a double-double from Joe Campbell (15 points, 10 rebounds) in his final collegiate game.
