CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Vermont's Marqus Blakely (Metchuen, N.J../Metchuen) had a pair of monster games last week to earn his third America East Player of the Week honor this season. Boston University's John Holland (Bronx, N.Y./St. Benedict's Prep) and
New Hampshire's Alvin Abreu (Lynn, Mass./Boys to Men) shared Rookie of
the Week honors for the week ending February 24. Click here for the complete Weekly Release in PDF format.
A sophomore forward, Blakely averaged 24.5 points and 19.5 rebounds in two key victories for the Catamounts. In a 94-82 win over Hartford on Wednesday, Blakely became just the second player in the country this season to record at least 30 points and pull down 20 rebounds in a game. His 30 point, 20 rebound performance helped Vermont snap a three-game losing skid. He followed that performance with 19 points, 19 boards and five assists in a non-conference win at UNC-Wilimington on Saturday.
Blakely leads America East in scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounding (11.1 rpg) and blocks (2.56). He also ranks third in the league in field goal percentage (.552) and steals per game (1.96).
Holland, who has received the rookie honor four straight weeks and five times overall, averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in a pair of Terrier wins last week. He led all scorers with 23 points against Maine on Wednesday and shot 10-of-17 from the floor. He also had three rebounds, four assists and tied a season high with six steals.
On Saturday, Holland keyed a second-half comeback against St. Peter's. The Terriers trailed by 11 with under 10 minutes to go, but rallied for a 67-64 win. Holland drilled a three-pointer with 3:28 remaining to cut the deficit to one. Holland, who finished with 18 points on 6-of10 shooting and seven rebounds, sealed the outcome with two free throws with four seconds left. For the week, Holland shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) from the floor and 6-of-11 (.545) from the floor.
Abreu, who averaged 18 points, five rebounds and five assists last week, led New Hampshire to a win over Stony Brook on Wednesday and helped the Wildcats take first-place UMBC to overtime on Saturday.
He nearly missed a triple-double against SBU, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Abreu shot 4-of-7 from the floor, all three-point attempts. He equaled that scoring effort on Saturday with 18 points against UMBC. The freshman guard played all 45 minutes and committed just one turnover. Abreu leads all America East rookies averaging 12.7 points per game.
Conference Notebook
Honorable Mention
Several America East players had highlight performances last week. Albany's Brian Lillis (Urbandale, Iowa/West Des Moines Dowling) scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half against UMBC and added eight rebounds and five assists... Binghamton senior guard Richard Forbes (Far Rockaway, N.Y./Far Rockaway/Howard JC) matched his career-high with 27 points on 12-of-21 shooting... Boston University's Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass./Newton North) led the Terriers to a comeback win over St. Peter's on Saturday with a game-high 22 points... Hartford's Morgan Sabia (Sab Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake) scored a career-high 21 points and ripped down seven reboundsin a 94-82 loss to Vermont on Wednesday... UMBC's Ray Barbosa (Allentown, Pa./Allen/James Madison) helped extend his team's win streak to eight games with a game-high 21 points against New Hampshire on Saturday and 27 against Albany on Wednesday. points in a win over Boston U. on Sunday... Stony Brook's Ricky Lucas (Herndon, Va./Herndon) poured in a game-high 24 points in a loss to UNH on Wednesday.
Every Dog Has Its Day
With its win over New Hampshire on Saturday, UMBC locked up the regular-season title and the top seed in the America East Championship for the first time in its history. The Retrievers held off the Wildcats, 71-68 in overtime in front of a record crowd of 3,712. The Retrievers have ensured at minimum a bid to the NIT and will host the conference title game if they reach the final. UMBC has won eight straight and reached the 20-win plateau for only the second time in 22 years as a Division I program.
Still Blurry
With just a week to go in the regular-season, a logjam remains in the middle of the league standings. Hartford sits in second-place at 9-5 and holds a half-game lead over four other teams. Albany, Binghamton, Boston University and Vermont are all tied for third at 8-6. These teams will square off this week as Binghamton hosts Albany on Wednesday and Hartford travels to Boston University on Thursday.Also on Thursday, Vermont goes to New Hampshire and Maine takes on UMBC. The Wildcats can lock up the No. 7 seed with a victory or a Black Bear loss.
Hitting the Boards
Albany is outrebounding opponents by a 8.1 margin this season, seventh best in the nation. The output is far the best in America East. Maine is next at plus-1.7.
Never Before
In 23 years as a member of America East, Harford has never finished higher than third in the men's basektball regular-season standings. artford With one win in their final two games, the Hawks would clinch at least a tie for second place.
Mr. Everything
New Hampshire senior Mike Christensen surpassed the 1,000-point milestone for his career. with 11 points at Binghamton on Feb 14. He hit two more milestones last week, grabbing his 500th rebounds and also giving out his 200th assist against UMBC on Saturday. He is just the second UNH player to score 1,000 points, have 500 rebounds and 200 assists for a career.
Tough Place to Play
Vermont knocked off UNC-Wilmington, 84-73 on Saturday in front of 5,640 fan at Trask Coliseum in a non-league matchup that was part of the ESPNU BracketBuster pool. The loss was just the Seahawks third in 14 home games this season.
Team-By-Team Notebook
Albany (13-14, America East 8-6) fell below the .500 mark with a pair of four-point losses last week ... The Great Danes dropped an 81-77 overtime decision to league-leader UMBC on Feb. 20 after sending the game to an extra period on a three-point field goal by Brian Lillis (Urbandale, Iowa/West Des Moines Dowling) with three-tenths of a second remaining in regulation ... Albany is now 7-13 all-time in OT games as a Division I program ... The Great Danes also lost a road game to Canisius (64-60) on Feb. 23 in a non-league matchup of teams from the BracketBusters’ pool ... Lillis, who extended his double-figure scoring streak to 25 straight games, had 18 of his 20 points in the second half against UMBC ... The 6’5” senior moved to 14th on the program’s career assists list with 259 ... Brent Wilson (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) had 15 points and nine rebounds vs. Canisius ... Wilson is now 17th all-time in scoring with 1,153 points and tied for second in career games played (120) ... Jon Iati (York, Pa./York Catholic) climbed to No. 21 on UAlbany’s scoring chart with 1,098 points ... Brian Connelly (Audubon, N.J./Camden Catholic) reached twin figures against both UMBC (14) and Canisius (12) ... Jerel Hastings (Dallas, Texas/South Oak Cliff) netted 10 points vs. UMBC, his first time in double digits since Jan. 19... Tim Ambrose (Brentwood, N.Y. / Our Savior New American) had 10 points and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds off the bench against UMBC ... Ambrose is averaging 9.2 points over his last six outings ... Freshman Al Turley (Houston, Texas/Westfield) averaged 5.5 points and 5.0 rebounds as a starter last week ... UAlbany’s final two regular-season games (Binghamton & Boston U.) will have a major impact on the conference tournament seedings ... Lillis, Wilson and Iati will be honored as seniors in a pre-game ceremony on March 2 at SEFCU Arena.
Binghamton (13-14, 8-6 America East) won its only game of the week - a 66-56 non-conference victory at Manhattan ... It was the team's third consecutive win and first non-conference road win of the season ... The Bearcats played that game without two starters and had only eight scholarship players available ... It was the team's 10th different starting lineup this season, with every scholarship player earning at least one start ... Senior guard Richard Forbes (Far Rockaway, N.Y./Far Rockaway/Howard JC) matched his career-high with 27 points on 12-of-21 shooting. Forbes scored 15 in the first half as Binghamton built an eight-point lead ... Senior guard Mike Gordon (Plainfield, N.J./Plainfield) added 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Gordon, who started his 99th consecutive game, now has 974 career points... No other Binghamton player scored more than four points against Manhattan ... Binghamton's 13 wins ties its total from last season (13-16) with at least three more games remaining ... The team is 9-4 at home, where they will host the first three rounds of the upcoming America East Championship on March 7-9 ... The Bearcats are averaging 3,457 fans at the Events Center, and that figure should rise when longtime SUNY rival Albany comes to town on Wednesday ... Binghamton has led the conference in attendance in each of the last four years.
Boston University (12-15, America East 8-6) picked up two wins last week, claiming a 73-54 decision against Maine on Feb. 20 and a 67-64 win at St. Peter's on Feb. 23 ... Freshman guard/forward John Holland (Bronx, N.Y.) scored 23 points to lead the Terriers versus Maine, while sophomore guard Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass.) had 18 points and a career-high nine assists ... Boston U. limited Maine to 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) shooting in the first half, forcing the Black Bears to score half of their 18 first-half points on free throws. The Terriers built as many as a 31-point advantage in the second half, and their lead didn't dip below 20 points until the final 20 seconds of the game ... The Terriers held a 42-18 lead at the break and took their largest lead of the game, 52-21 at 18:16 in the second, on one of Holland's four dunks. BU out-scored Maine 40-22 in the paint for the game and posted a season-high 20 assists and 14 steals ... In the win over St. Peter's, Holland calmly drained both free throws in a one-and-one with four seconds left to preserve a Boston University lead ... Lowe led BU with 22 points. Holland added 18 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore forward Scott Brittain (Oakville, Ont.) contributed 14 points and nine rebounds... Lowe came into the game needing three 3-pointers to take over the top spot in BU's single-season 3-pointer list. The sophomore went 6-for-14 from deep on the afternoon to finish the game with 83 triples for the season and pass Mark Daly's record of 79 ... BU came out flat in both halves and had trouble defending the three, but the Terriers came up with the offense when it mattered, sinking a wide-open two-foot layup with 13 seconds left when they were down one and making two free throws with four seconds left to hold onto the win. The Terriers return to conference action this Thursday, hosting Hartford at 7 p.m. in Boston U's last regular-season home game.
Hartford (15-14 overall, America East 9-5) dropped its only game last week, a 94-82 final at Vermont. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak, though the Hawks remained in sole possession of second place in the conference standings with Albany's loss to UMBC ... The Catamounts got 30 points and 20 rebounds from Marqus Blakely while freshman Morgan Sabia (San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake) led the Hawks with a career-high 21 points and seven rebounds ... Vermont has won 12 of the last 13 meetings between the two schools ... With one win in their final two games, the Hawks would clinch at least a tie for second place in the conference standings ... Hartford has never finished higher than third place in its 23 years in the America East ... By winning their final two games, the Hawks would clinch sole possession of second place and the second seed in the upcoming America East Men's Basketball Championship ... Sabia has scored in double figures in his last six games and is coming off back-to-back 20-point performances against New Hampshire and Maine. He has picked up his game during the conference season, averaging 13.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game after averaging 7.6 points and 2.9 rebounds during the non-conference schedule ... Juniors Michael Turner (Novato, Calif./Marin Catholic/West Valley) and Jaret Von Rosenberg (Mission, Texas/Sharyland/Collin County) could become the first teammates in Hartford's Division I history to each record 100 assists in the same season. Turner has already reached the plateau with 106 while Von Rosenberg needs three more ... Sophomore Joe Zeglinski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) leads the team in scoring at 16.2 points per game. Against Vermont he played 39 minutes and cracked 1,000 in a season for the second straight year. He becomes the first player in Hartford's Division I history to record back-to-back 1,000-minute seasons and is the only player other than Ryan Stys '04 to even have two in a career ... Hartford wraps up the week with games at Boston University and against UMBC. The Hawks last won at Case Gymnasium in 2001-2002 and haven't swept a season series from the Terriers since 1998-99.
Maine's (7-20, America East 3-11) went 0-2 last week, dropping contests at Boston University and at home to Stony Brook ... Mark Socoby (Houlton, Maine/Bangor) haa had seven straight double-digit scoring games ... Socoby is shooting 43 percent from three-point range the last three games ... Robby Hanzlik (Greenwood Village, Colo.) tied a career high with six rebounds against Stony Brook ... Brian Andre (Bingham, Maine/Valley) had his double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds against Boston University ... Since coming back from an injury, Andre is shooting 57 percent from the field the last two games...The Black Bears have had five freshmen play significant minutes in the last five games ...Freshman Sean McNally (Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner) is averaging six rebounds per game in the last six games ... With 12 points against Stony Brook, Kaimondre Owes (Brooklyn, N.Y./Cardinal Hayes) now has double-digit scoring efforts in 12 of 16 games he has played since becoming eligible at the end of the first semester ... Thursday’s game against UMBC is Senior Night, and the Black Bears will be honoring seniors Brian Andre and Pat Woodbrey (Raymond, Maine/Poland Regional) before the game.
UMBC (20-7, America East 12-2) clinched the America East Conference regular season title with a tense 71-68 overtime victory over visiting New Hampshire before a record crowd of 3,712 at the RAC Arena...UMBC senior guard Ray Barbosa (Allentown, Pa./Allen/James Madison) was UMBC’s America East Player of the Game and celebrated his “Senior Night’” appearance with 21 points ... The win guarantees that the Retrievers (20-7, 12-2) will compete in the post-season for the first time in the school’s 22-year Division I history... In addition, should UMBC advance through the quarter and semi-final round of the league tournament in two weeks, they would host the league title game on March 15 ... UMBC never trailed in overtime ... After Barbosa hit a runner on the opening possession, junior guard Jay Greene (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) hit three-point field goals at the 3:35 and 2:13 marks to put the hosts ahead, 65-57 ... Barbosa hit six straight free throws in the final 32 seconds to seal the win ... Four other Retrievers scored in double figures. Junior forward Darryl Proctor (District Heights, Md./Paul IV/Coppin State) added 14 points, Greene and senior post Cavell Johnson (Fort Washington, Md./Notre Dame Prep./James Madison) had 11 each and sophomore wing Matt Spadafora (Richboro, Pa./Archbishop Wood) scored 10... Greene, who has set UMBC’s single season assist mark with 186, contributed nine assists and played all 45 minutes for the second consecutive game ... The 20 wins ties the most in UMBC’s 22-year Division I history ... The 2001-02 team finished the campaign at 20-9 ... UMBC has won eight straight, its longest winning streak since an 11-game skein in the 1998-99 campaign ... The Retrievers are 13-1 at home, its most ever home victories at the Division I level ... Johnson and senior guard Brian Hodges (Upper Marlboro, Md./Bishop McNamara) were also honored before the game ... Hodges saw action for the first time since suffering a sprained left ankle on Jan. 30 and scored two points in 17 minutes ... The crowd of 3,712 broke the mark set on Feb. 21, 2004, when the UMBC-Maine regular season finale drew 3,664 spectators. Three of the top six crowds in school history have occurred this season... the overtime win over UNH marked the second time in UMBC’s Division I history that they had played in back-to-back overtime games and the first time that UMBC was victorious in both ... On Wednesday, UMBC also never trailed in the extra session in an 81-77 win at Albany... Barbosa scored 27 points and Proctor posted his 11th double-double of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds ... UMBC finishes the regular season on the road with games at Maine on Thursday and at Hartford on Sunday.
New Hampshire (8-19, America East 5-10) went 1-1 last week, downing Stony Brook, 74-67, at home Feb. 20, and nearly knocking off UMBC on the road in overtime, but falling 71-68 ... Freshman guard Alvin Abreu (Lynn, Mass./Boys to Men) had an unbelievable week that started with a career night against Stony Brook when Abreu netted 18 points, tied his career high with eight rebounds and set a career high with nine assists, narrowly missing a triple-double ... Abreu tallied 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting and added two rebounds and an assist as he played all 45 minutes of the contest against UMBC ... Junior guard Tyrece Gibbs (Brockton, Mass./Thayer Academy) had a pair of good games this week as he filled the stat line against both Stony Brook and UMBC ... Against Stony Brook, Gibbs tallied 13 points, three rebounds four assists, a steal and a block ... He matched his career high by pouring in 22 points at UMBC and matched another career high by knocking down six treys and also tallying six rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block ... Senior forward Mike Christensen (Reston, Va./Flint Hill) posted a double-double against Stony Brook when he scored 18 points and 12 rebounds ... The captain’s 11th rebound was the 500th of his career ... Christensen then tallied 11 points, six rebounds and five assists, picking up his 200th career assist on his first helper of the game ... Christensen is now just the second Wildcat in school history to have 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists in a career ... Dan Nolan tallied 1,258 points, 826 rebounds and 219 assists from 1980 to 1984 ... freshman guard Tyrone Conley (Burlington, Vt./Burlington) put together a solid week, scoring 15 points in a career-high 39 minutes, and 12 points on four treys against UMBC, including the one with 12 seconds remaining that sent the game to overtime ... Freshman center Dane DiLiegro (Lexington, Mass./Lexington) recorded a game-high nine rebounds at UMBC ... the Wildcats return to action Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. when they play host to Vermont in their season finale at Lundholm Gymnasium on Senior Night.
Stony Brook (6-21, America East 3-12) completed a season sweep of Maine with a 56-51 victory on Saturday ... Mitchell Beauford (Queens, N.Y./Christ the King) hit the go-ahead free throw with 2:19 left as the Seawolves rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final minutes on its way to a the victory over the Black Bears ... Maine pushed its lead to eight at 47-39 on a technical free throw but Ricky Lucas (Herndon, Va./Herndon/George Washington) answered with five straight to make it 47-44 ... Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, N.Y./Christ the King) added a hoop to cut the deficit to a pair before Stony Brook grabbed the lead back on the ensuing possession on an old-fashioned three-point play from Beauford ... The Black Bears cut the lead to one on a put-back from Brian Andre but were then assessed a technical foul after calling a timeout with none remaining, sealing the game for Stony Brook ... The victory marked SBU’s first season sweep of a conference opponent since 2004-05 when the Seawolves swept Hartford ... It was also the Seawolves’ first conference road victory since Feb. 3, 2007 against UMBC ... Lucas scored 24 points but it wasn't enough as the New Hampshire Wildcats hit 15 three-pointers on its way to a 74-67 victory over the Seawolves on Wednesday night at Lundholm Gymnasium ... Lucas was terrific for Stony Brook, knocking down five triples in 10 attempts in addition to grabbing five rebounds. Beauford added 14 points for the Seawolves while Emanuel Neto (Luanda, Angola/Colegio Henriques/San Jacinto College) tallied nine points and eight rebounds.
Vermont (14-13, America East 8-6) went 2-0 on the week with a home victory over Hartford on Wednesday (94-82) and a road win in non-conference action on Saturday at UNC-Wilmington (84-73) ... Sophomore Marqus Blakely (Metuchen, N.J./Metuchen) tied a career high with 30 points and set a new personal best with 20 rebounds to lead the Catamounts over Hartford ... Blakely became only the second player in the nation this season to record at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in the same game this year (Michael Beasley ? Kansas State) ... Four Cats reached double figures as they snapped a three-game losing streak ... Freshman Joey Accaoui (Lincoln, R.I./St. Andrews) went for career highs of 14 points and five rebounds ... The 94 points for Vermont are the most since it scored 101 at Quinnipiac on December 23 of last season ... On Saturday Blakely was at it again with a 19 points and 19 rebounds to lead five Cats in double figures against the Seahawks ... Vermont has now won five of its last six road games ... UNCW had won four straight before Saturday and was 11-2 at home this year ... The Cats had to bus to Wilmington after inclement weather in the region cancelled their scheduled flight, leading them on a 19 hour bus trip ... Vermont returns to America East action on Thursday when the Cats travel to face New Hampshire (7 p.m.) and then hosts Maine on Sunday (1 p.m.) in the regular-season finale.