WEST HARTFORD, Conn.-- University of Vermont upset both the first- and second-seeded teams to win the 2009 America East Women's Basketball Championship Sunday evening at University of Hartford's Chase Arena. The Catamounts upended top-seeded Boston University, 74-66, in the tournament final game and received the conference's automatic NCAA Championship berth.
Vermont (21-11 overall record) will find out its NCAA fate during the selection show which will air Monday night on ESPN at 7 p.m. The program's last trip to the NCAA Championship was as a No. 11 seed in 2000 where the Catamounts played No. 6 Tulane in Lubbock, Texas.
The tournament's Most Outstanding Player, Vermont junior guard Courtnay Pilypaitis, led the Catamounts to the win over the Terriers with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. She averaged 20 points throughout the tournament and recorded a double-double in both the semifinals and the finals. From the free-throw line, Pilypaitis went a perfect 17-for-17 over the last two games and went 21-for-23 for the whole tournament.
“We know it’s hard to beat a team three times," said Pilypaitis. "We saw that when we played UNH in our first game. Teams just know you so well after the second game and we just knew that if we played 40 minutes that we could have a chance.”
Vermont junior May Kotsopoulos, who joined Pilypaitis on the All-Championship Team, tallied 21 points for the Catamounts in the finals, while senior Sy Janousek added 12 points and five rebounds. Boston University's Jesyka Burks-Wiley was named to the All-Championship Team and recorded 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Terriers.
Burks-Wiley scored the first six points of the game for Boston U. as the Terriers got out to a 6-2 lead. A Christine Kinneary layup made it 8-2 before Vermont called a 30 second timeout. After the brief break, Terrier senior Kristi Dini threw up a long three that gave the Terriers a 13-4 lead at the 15:22 mark. Boston U., as it did in each of its other two previous games in the tournament, came out on fire, shooting a blistering 60 percent over the first 4:45 of play.
The Terriers missed nine of their next 12 field goal attempts, though, cooling down and letting Vermont get back into the contest with a 15-2 run.
After two missed foul shots by Kinneary, the first free-throws of the game, a Kelli Poles layup with eight minutes on the clock gave the Catamounts their first lead of the game, 21-20. Aly Hinton rebounded a missed Kotsopoulos jumper and took it down the other side of the court to hit a three, giving Boston U. its last lead of the game, 23-21, with 6:34 left in the first half. A Pilypaitis jumper in the paint at 4:56 put Vermont up for good.
A Sy Janousek shot that soared up and came straight back down into the basket as the backboard light indicated the end of the half gave the Catamounts a 33-28 halftime lead. Burks-Wiley led all scorers at the half with 12 points, while Janousek led the Catamounts with eight points and three rebounds. Pilypaitis finished the first 20 minutes with nine rebounds and four points.
Boston University got within one point on several occasions early in the second half, and had opportunities to tie it, but didn't seize them. With 17:32 on the clock in the second half, senior Amarachi Umez-Eronini hit only the first of two free-throws to put the Terriers in striking distance, 36-35, but Pilypaitis came right back with a field goal to stop any Boston U. momentum. Boston U. only hit 13-of-22 free-throws for the game for 59.1 percent.
Vermont built a double-digit lead on the back of Pilypaitis, who scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half. The Catamounts won the game with their offense, and by containing the Terrier shots from beyond the arc, as the Terriers still scored 28 points inside the paint in the second half. Vermont also outrebounded Boston U., 43-36, and got 11 points of production from their bench, while the Terriers saw none from their non-starters.
The Terriers, who had a 19 game winning streak snapped with the loss, will receive the league's automatic berth into the postseason Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). The WNIT bracket will be announced shortly after the NCAA Championship seeds are announced Monday night.
2009 America East Women's Basketball All-Championship Team
Courtnay Pilypaitis (Vermont) - Most Outstanding Player
May Kotsopoulos (Vermont)
Jesyka Burks-Wiley (Boston U.)
Amarachi Umez-Eronini (Boston U.)
Katie Kelley (Hartford)