Hawks, Terriers and Catamounts Win Conference Openers

The rest of the conference (except for Albany which begins league play Saturday at the Events Center) got America East play started Wednesday night. Hartford and Vermont won on their home courts, while Boston University won one on the road to all move to 1-0 in AE.

Hartford 63, Binghamton 54
America East Players of the Game: Ilicia Mathis (Hartford), Erica Carter (Binghamton)
Mathis took her game to a whole new level for the second straight contest. The reigning America East Rookie of the Week scored a career-high 15 points, surpassing the previous high of 10 points set against #1 UConn last week. Erica Beverly also contributed 15 points for the Hawks. While Hartford extended their home court winning streak to 30 games, the Bearcats did keep it close. Binghamton kept Hartford's lead in single digits and held a lead in the first-half. Carter scored 15 points for the visitors, including 11 in the first half to lead all players in the first 20 minutes.

Vermont 81, UMBC 52
America East Players of the Game: Courtnay Pilypaitis (Vermont), Erin Brown (UMBC)
Pilypaitis scored a game-high 28 points and added 11 rebounds for her fourth double double this year. The Catamount defense held the Retrievers to season lows of 52 points and four three-pointers, in addition to holding the league's leading scorer, Carlee Cassidy, in check to just 10 points. Vermont's May Kotsopoulos also had a great game with 16 points and a career-tying 7 assists. The Catamounts had a 16-point halftime lead and couldn't get any closer than 15 for the rest of the contest. Brown led the Retrievers with 13 points and 8 rebounds.

Boston University 72, Stony Brook 59
America East Players of the Game: Jesyka Burks-Wiley (Boston U.), Kirsten Jeter (Stony Brook)
The Terriers, who were a mere 3-5 on the road in AE contests last year, picked up their first league win away from Boston. Burks-Wiley secured her third double-double of the year with 18 points and 13 rebounds to help put the Seawolves away. Stony Brook did threaten late in the first half and early in the second half, going on a 9-0 run to end the first stanza and forced 7 ties in the game. The Seawolves had the edge in bench points (13-9) and second-chance points (12-5). Jeter scored 20 points for the Seawolves and sophomore Misha Horsey added 16, but 4 Terriers scored double-figures to eventually pull out the win.

Teams are off until Saturday.