Two Wins and a Couple of Close Contests Come Out of Monday

After a rough first day back from the holiday break on Sunday (America East teams went 0-5) teams appeared to have shook the rust free by Monday. UMBC and Stony Brook both picked up wins at their respective tournament's consolation games in Virginia and Los Angeles. Freshman Michelle Kurowski scored a team-high 18 points for the Retrievers to help UMBC pick up the W over Rider (76-55) in its last tune-up before the conference slate. Sophomore Kirsten Jeter was Stony Brook's player of the game against San Jose State with 15 points, six rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. It was the Seawolves' best defensive effort of the year, holding their opponent to just 38 points.

Vermont played #18/20 Florida tough Monday night at the State Farm Classic in Gainesville, but fell 85-76 despite a game-high 25 points from junior May Kotsopoulos. The Catamounts will now play former America East member Towson in the consolation game Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Earlier on Monday, Maine fell to Drexel, 87-55, New Hampshire dropped to Morehead State, 76-43, in Louisville, and Albany fell to Montana State, 75-71, at the Battle at the Border in Edinburgh, Texas.

The Wildcats play #10/13 Louisville in the third day of the Louisville Tournament at 7 p.m., while Binghamton returns to the court at Sacred Heart also tonight. At 2 p.m. today, Boston University will try to improve to 14 straight home court wins when St. John's pays a visit to Case Gym.

Holiday's Over For Five Teams On Sunday

After a long holiday break, five teams have to get back to business on Sunday, all on the road. As is customary for this period between Christmas and New Year's, America East teams are off at holiday tournaments all over the country.

Stony Brook gets the prize for most mileage as the Seawolves are out in Los Angeles playing in the Loyola Marymount Holiday Classic. They play former America East-member Delaware Sunday at 8 p.m. EST. The Seawolves and the Blue Hens join the Duke Blue Devils as the only east coast teams ever to participate in this tournament. Funny thing is, these two schools who are separated by just 192 miles, will travel 5,565 combined miles one-way to play this non-conference game, and 11,130 miles round trip.

The Wildcats will be the third America East team to play at Louisville's Freedom Hall during the month of December, joining Vermont and Hartford, when they take on Central Michigan Sunday at 1:30 p.m. New Hampshire will also face host #10/#13 Louisville and Morehead State in the Louisville Tournament. UMBC is participating in the Marriott Cavalier Classic hosted by #15 Virginia and will start it off with Louisiana Tech Sunday at 2 p.m. Also on Sunday, Maine plays at Saint Joseph's at 4 p.m. and Albany faces host UTPA in the Battle at the Border Tournament. The Great Danes tip-off at 6 p.m. EST.

Vermont's Rosenkrantz Selected Finalist For Academic Honor

University of Vermont senior guard Amy Rosenkrantz is among America East leaders at 15th in scoring and 6th in rebounding. She's also among the nation's leaders in the classroom. Rosenkrantz, a member of the 2007-08 America East All-Academic Team, was selected a finalist for the Lowe's senior CLASS women's basketball award. 30 men's basketball players and 30 women's basketball players were named finalists earlier this week. Once a national committee narrows down the list to 10 candidates, the ballot will be open to college basketball fans to vote here.

Kurowski's Getting Noticed

The three-time America East Rookie of the Week, UMBC guard Michelle Kurowski, was featured by Newsday's Marcus Henry in Sunday's hometown spotlight. Kurowski comes from Hicksville, N.Y. on Long Island where she is the third-highest scorer in the area's girls basketball history with 2,581 points.

RPI Slips

The America East Conference's RPI slipped one spot from 21 to 22 out of 32 conference's in the unofficial report released this morning. Collegiate Basketball News releases a report each Monday.

Inexperience Proves Valuable

The UMBC Retrievers have nine new faces this year, yet they find themselves atop the America East standings early in the season with a 7-2 mark. They are the most inexperienced team in the conference, but UMBC SID Jessica Bernheim was curious how the Retrievers stacked up in that category with other Division I teams. With a little research and a little help from other Division I SIDs, Jessica came up with the following lists:

Least years of experience (Seniors have three years, juniors have two years, sophomore have one):
1. Tennessee-Martin 5
T2. Idaho 6
T2. San Jose State 6
T4. Tennessee 7
T4. Illinois 7
6. UMBC 8
7. Elon 9
T8. Central Arkansas 11
T8. Arkansas 11
T8. UCF 11
T11. Georgetown 14
T11. Nicholls 14

Most underclassmen (sophomores and freshmen):
1. BYU 14
2. UMBC 13
T3. Elon 12
T3. Northeastern 12
T3. UCF 12
6. Tennessee 11
T7. Green Bay 10
T7. McNeese 10

Surprisingly, little more than half of these teams, including UMBC, have a record of .500 or above and combined these 16 teams have a winning percentage of .503.

The Retrievers put their five-game win streak on the line tonight at James Madison after a 10 day break for final exams. UMBC is the only team in action tonight.

More In Depth Look At Ms. Maine

As reported a couple of weeks ago, former University of Maine basketball standout Ashley Underwood was named Ms. Maine USA and will compete in the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas next April. The Portland Press Herald ran a much more in-depth feature into Underwood's life now, and how she's always dreamed of competing in pageants despite being a tomboy. Underwood still is a regular at Black Bear games, and was in attendance last Sunday in Cambridge when Maine took on Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion.

RPI Ramblings

Collegiate Basketball News puts together an unofficial RPI rankings (by subscription) each week beginning several weeks into the season and right up until the NCAA Championship Selection Special in March. Here are a few thoughts and observations on this week's rankings.

• America East is 21st of 32 conferences in RPI this week, which is the same ranking as the first RPI report last week as well as the final 2007-08 ranking. The league is 10th among non-FBS conferences.
  
• Hartford, as has been the case over the past few years, is the highest America East team in the RPI rankings at 58. The Hawks jumped up from 71 over the past week, despite a loss to #12 Louisville. It appears that playing Louisville actually increased their RPI ranking because it built up their strength of schedule (strength of schedule ranked 70th last week, 29th this week).
• The last time Hartford was not the top-rated team from the America East by the time the season was through? 2004. Maine finished the season at 59, Boston University was 96 and Hartford finished 150.
• Vermont fell from last week, but is still the second-ranked team from the conference at 104. UMBC follows at 128, and Boston U. at 163. Binghamton (232), Albany (291), Maine (293), Stony Brook (303) and New Hampshire (320) round out America East teams.
• America East ranks 20th among 32 conferences in strength of schedule
• Hartford and UMBC each have a win against a team from the RPI top 25. Hartford defeated Duke (16) on a neutral court, while UMBC topped Towson (22) at home. Those victories represent the conference's only top-100 wins.
  

Double Digit Deficits Doom Teams Saturday

A tough slate of ACC, MAAC and Ivy opponents did America East teams in on Saturday, as Boston U., Binghamton and Stony Brook all fell by double digit points on the road. The Terriers fell to MAAC-favorite Marist, 73-62, the Bearcats dropped to Miami (Fla.), 72-37, and the Seawolves lost to Dartmouth, 59-47.

Two home games are scheduled for Sunday afternoon. New Hampshire hosts Northeastern at 1 p.m. and Vermont returns to Patrick Gym to face Kent State at 4 p.m. Maine is in the city for a 2 p.m. match-up with Harvard.

Big East Foes Have No Mercy

A pair of Big East opponents did not treat America East squads kindly Wednesday night. 12th-ranked Louisville, and All-American Angel McCoughtry's triple-double, defeated Hartford in Kentucky, 42-70. In the meantime at the Events Center, Villanova came away the victor against Binghamton, 55-37.

The only game Thursday night is Vermont at Harvard. The tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. It is the second of three straight America East opponents the Crimson will face.

Terriers Take Out Crimson

Boston University cruised by Harvard Tuesday night 80-61. Jesyka Burks-Wiley finished with 23 points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal and Aly Hinton chipped in with 11 points, nine boards, two assists, two steals and a block. Boston earned its 13th straight win at Case Gym, moving into a tie for 10th on the NCAA Division I chart for home court win streaks.

New Hampshire was further down the green line at Boston College, but couldn't get overcome the difference in size, falling, 85-43 to the Eagles. Albany fell to NJIT, 58-47, and Maine dropped a close game to Hofstra on Long Island, 60-56, despite Amanda Tewksbury's season-high 16 points.

Wednesday night brings two more games against Big East opponents. Hartford is at Louisville and Binghamton plays host to Villanova. The Bearcats' game will be televised regionally by Time Warner. Both of those games tip-off at 7 p.m.

Stony Brook Gets Over The Hump

The Stony Brook Seawolves became the last America East team to pick up its first win of the 2008-09 season, and they did it in dramatic fashion. Down for most of the game, and down by a game-high 11 points at the 10:48 mark of the second half, the Seawolves staged a comeback win, 73-68, over Yale at Pritchard Gym. Stony Brook's bench outscored the visitors' bench players, 37-9, led by Destiny Jacobs' 13 points.

UMBC improved to 7-2 this season with a win Monday night as well. The Retrievers handed Coppin State its 7th loss of the year, 76-63. Carlee Cassidy did most of her damage in the second half, but finished with a game-high 28 points.

Cassidy Third In Scoring Nationally

This week's NCAA national DI rankings came out this afternoon and there are some America East players making a significant impact in some of the categories. UMBC junior Carlee Cassidy is ranked third nationally in scoring with 23.9 points per game.

Binghamton's Laura Franceski is 5th in blocks (3.3 bpg), Hartford's Diana Delva is 5th in field goal percentage (63.8%), and Boston University's Kristi Dini is 5th in three-pointers (3.3 treys per game).

Additionally, the Retrievers' 78.8 points per game is 14th in the country. That's ahead of some of the nation's elite teams such as #3 Stanford, #10 Baylor, #11 Duke, #12 Louisville, #17 Virginia #18 Ohio State and #19 TCU. UMBC will try to continue that trend when they play host to winless Coppin State tonight at 7 p.m. Stony Brook is the only other team in action tonight. They play Yale at Pritchard Gym at 6 p.m.

Three Wins Come Early on Saturday

The Hartford Hawks, Vermont Catamounts and Binghamton Bearcats all won their early afternoon games on Saturday. Highlighting the early going was Catamount Courtnay Pilypaitis' second career triple-double at home in Vermont's 71-53 win over Holy Cross. The junior guard scored 18 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Diana Delva followed up her 30-point performance Wednesday night with 20 points and nine rebounds against St. Joseph's. Hartford extended their home win streak to 29 games, the longest in the nation, with an 80-56 win. Binghamton won on the road at La Salle, 53-47. It is the Bearcats' second straight win. Senior forward Laura Franceski finished with 10 points, six rebounds, two assists and three blocks.

Stony Brook and Northeastern are still finishing business on Long Island, and UMBC hosts Towson tonight at a 7 p.m. tipoff.

Wildcats Win #1 On The Season

University of New Hampshire won its first game of the 2008-09 season, an 89-61 decision at Colgate Friday night. Five different Wildcats hit double figures, including junior Amy Simpson with a game-high 24 points. UNH shot 61.8% from the field and hit 14 treys for the game.

Five teams are in action Saturday. Hartford hosts St. Joseph's for a 1 p.m. game on NESN. The Hawks will try to extend their home win streak to 29 games. Also, Binghamton is at La Salle for a 1 p.m. tipoff, Holy Cross and Vermont face-off in Patrick Gym at 1:00, Northeastern is at Stony Brook for a 2 p.m. game, and UMBC hosts Towson beginning at 7 p.m.

UMBC, Boston U. and Maine Win At Home

UMBC defeated Navy, 85-77, in the first half of a women's-men's doubleheader in Catonsville. The win was backed by junior Carlee Cassidy's 32 points and freshman Michelle Kurowski's 30 points. The Terriers also won on their home court, 81-54 over Brown, extending their win streak at Case Gym to 15 games. Maine picked up its first win of the season at Alfond Arena over NEC foe Robert Morris, 54-52.

New Hampshire, Stony Brook, Albany and Hartford all fell Wednesday night against Harvard, Sacred Heart, Army, and Quinnipiac, respectively. Thursday is an off day and the Wildcats travel to face Colgate in the only game featured Friday night.

Two TV Games Highlight Wednesday

While Albany picked up its first win of the season, 62-49 over Detroit on Monday night, and Binghamton won on the road at Niagara, 83-65 earlier that day, all nine teams are off Tuesday.

Seven teams are in action Wednesday. UMBC hosts Navy at home in a game televised by MASN. Tip-off is at 4:30 p.m. Hartford travels to Quinnipiac for an 8:00 contest to be aired on NESN. Also, Brown is at Boston U., Robert Morris is at Maine, Stony Brook is at Sacred Heart and New Hampshire is at Harvard, all beginning at 7 p.m.

Former Maine Hoops Standout Named Ms. Maine USA

Former University of Maine women's basketball star Ashley Underwood ('07) was named 2009 Ms. Maine USA over the weekend and will compete in the Ms. USA pageant in Las Vegas in April. Underwood holds several America East records, including best free-throw percentage in a season (.925, 2004-05).