America East Notebook
Race For the Top Gets Interesting
Entering the first full week of February, the conference race still has two clear leaders, but there’s a good race for third place and those teams are still within striking distance of second.
After league leader Albany at 9-2 is Binghamton, which rebounded from two straight losses and stands 7-3 in the conference. Two games then separate third from sixth. Next is New Hampshire at 6-5, a tie follows at 5-5 with Hartford and Vermont, and Boston University is 5-6.
Wildcats Win Two More
New Hampshire continued to be the conference’s surprise team with two more wins last week. They knocked off Boston University on Wednesday by a 63-54 margin, then held off a late charge by UMBC on Sunday for a 68-65 win.
With those wins, the Wildcats are alone in third place at 6-5 in the conference, and this marks the latest in a season they have been over .500 in conference play since they were 8-7 before the final game of the 2001-02 season (when they finished 8-8). Additionally, they have equaled last season’s win total and surpassed last season’s conference win total.
More noteworthy is the way the Wildcats won Sunday, as well as some things that won’t show up in the box score. For one, they took the lead for good on Sunday by scoring 17 unanswered points to take a 27-14 lead, holding the lead despite several charges by the Retrievers that included two runs of eight unanswered points. The Wildcats responded each time, including three cases where the lead shrunk to one point.
They also got a big game, especially in the second half, from junior point guard Jermaine Anderson, who didn’t start the game because he was late for a walk-through the day before. He scored nine of his 14 points in the second half and finished with five assists. None of his points were bigger than his two free throws with 12 seconds left.
To reach this point, the Wildcats have made some major strides since early in the season, when it looked like this year might not be much different from past seasons. That’s not lost on head coach Bill Herrion, who is already making an impact on the sideline – and we’re not referring to the time late in the game when he started to sprint up the sideline like he was trying to get back on defense after a turnover.
“When you look at this basketball team and where they’ve come since Assumption and Merrimack back in November to where they are now – and I’m not talking about our execution and what we’re running on offense, just our competitive nature – I couldn’t be happier with these guys,” Herrion said on Sunday. “All I wanted to see with this basketball team this year was progress – let’s get better. I think these guys have definitely done that.”
As wide open as the conference is, the Wildcats still have plenty of work to do if they’re going to go any further this season. Herrion noted their turnovers, which they had 15 of on Sunday and have had no less than that in each of their last six games; in the win over Boston University, they had 22, which tied a season high. Given their margin for error, it’s safe to say they have escaped games they have won of late.
This week, the Wildcats hit the road for a couple of key games, playing at Binghamton on Wednesday and Hartford on Saturday.
Coach’s Corner
Speaking of Herrion and his coaching job, conversations about early candidates for coach of the year should start with him. Looking at their personnel, no one could have expected this team to be in third place in February. In all, it should be a three-cat race, with Binghamton’s Al Walker and Vermont’s Mike Lonergan also in the mix. Herrion and Lonergan have exceeded expectations based on their personnel, with Lonergan inheriting a depleted roster that is the least experienced in America. Walker has led his Bearcats to contention for the conference title with a strong January and rebounding from a couple of tough road losses with Sunday’s win over Maine.
Cook Comes Alive
Hartford senior guard Aaron Cook has always been a bit of a streaky shooter, and last week the streak was positive for him and Hawks. Cook had a career-high 40 points in Hartford’s 75-66 win over Maine, then went for 18 more as the Hawks snapped Vermont’s 14-game home winning streak against America East teams with a 69-62 win in Burlington on Saturday. Those efforts earned him conference Player of the Week honors.
The Hawks haven’t been an easy team to get a read on, but if Cook can keep up the shooting he did last week, they’ll be a tough team to beat when combined with the inside play of Kenny Adeleke. Adeleke had his streak of 12 straight double-doubles snapped against Maine, but he came right back with 23 points and 16 rebounds in Saturday’s win.
The Hawks have two home games this week, as they take on Albany and New Hampshire.
Other Notes From Around America East
- Amidst the close calls and difficulty winning on the road, UMBC does have a couple of bright spots lately. Brian Hodges has reached double figures in eight straight games, and head coach Randy Monroe is pleased with the improvement of junior guard Chris Pugh. If the Retrievers can start winning on the road – they are 1-9 in conference play – they will take a big step forward.
- Binghamton is in a good position, as they sit in second place with four of its final six games at home. The Bearcats also got good weeks from senior leaders Andre Heard and Sebastian Hermenier, and sophomore floor leader Mike Gordon is also playing well of late.
- One reason for Albany’s solid play of late is the emergence of Jason Siggers. With Lucious Jordan still trying to get back to his form of last season, Siggers’ play off the bench has become that much more important. He has scored in double figures in three of the last four games, including a career-high 19 points in Saturday’s win over Boston University.
