American East Conference

Laws netted a game-high 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds as the Bearcats defeated Maine 66-56 for their first-ever win at Alfond Arena. She followed up with a 10-point, 12-rebound effort in the Bearcats’ 74-54 win over New Hampshire. Laws now has three double-doubles this season and has reached the 20-point mark twice.

Hood finished one of the most productive weeks of her career with an average of 25.0 ppg over two games, both conference victories, last week. She began the week with a 20-point effort at Vermont while also adding seven rebounds. She finished that game 9-of-18 from the field while also contributing three assists, two blocks and two steals. She then came out with force against Albany scoring a career-best 30 points, which tied her for fifth on the points in a single game column in the Hartford record book. After finishing the first half 4-of-8 from the floor she was unstoppable in the second half connecting on all eight of her attempts from the field, chipping in an additional six points at the free throw line. She also contributed a block and two steals in 25 minutes of action. Hood continues to lead the team in scoring where she is averaging 14.8 ppg and is second on the team with a 5.3 rpg average.

Beverly was the team’s second leading scorer last week while also leading the team in rebounding in both outings. She began the week with a 10-point, nine rebound effort at Vermont in her first America East game. She finished the game a perfect 3-of-3 from the floor and was 4-of-6 from the free throw line. For the game she added an assists, two blocks and a steal. On the road at Albany she was a force on the glass where she pulled down 11 rebounds, four of which were on the offensive end of the floor. She finished the game 4-of-6 from the field with nine points while adding an assists and a block. For the season, she is the only other player (than hood) that is averaging double digit scoring with 10.3 ppg and continues to lead the team in rebounding at 8.9 rpg. She is also the leading shot blocker with 17.

AMERICA EAST NOTES:

Stars Shine:The top players around the league were showcased in the first full week of America East Conference action. Boston University’s Erica Kovach (Georgetown, Texas/Georgetown) made the most of her first career start, matching her career high of 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting to propel Boston U. to a 75-57 road victory over UMBC in its conference opener. Danielle Clark (Corinna, Maine/Nokomis Regional) once again led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding last week as UNH split its first two conference games. Against UMBC, she scored a game-high 24 points, including two three-pointers, and a perfect 8-for-8 performance from the free throw line and nine rebounds. Mykeema Ford (Trenton, N.J./Trenton) came up big in a pair of Stony Brook wins last week, scoring game-highs of 21 points in both contests, including her 1000th career point in the win over Vermont. Matea Pender (Sibenik, Croatia/The Croatian National Team) has scored 20-plus points in her last three games, including a season-high 24 points against Boston U. as Pender averaged 22.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg over the last two games.

Strong Start: America East women’s basketball teams are off to a strong 56-39 (.589) combined start to the 2005-06 non-conference season. As a conference, America East currently ranks 13th in the nation in The Collegiate Basketball News Women’s RPI Report, but more importantly, is fourth among I-AA conferences. Only the Colonial (eighth), Missouri Valley (11th) and Atlantic 10 (ninth) are higher ranking I-AA leagues. America East boasts three teams with RPIs in the top 100. Due in large part to the Seawolves win over ranked Temple, Stony Brook leads the conference teams with an RPI of 28, followed by Hartford (66) and Boston University (91).