CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The conference honored a pair of guards with the America East Player and Rookie of the Week awards for the period ending February 7. Vermont senior Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario/St. Peter) earned her fourth Player of the Week honor of the season in leading the Catamounts to their Division I-leading 11th and 12th road wins of the season. Boston U. freshman Caitlynn Moran (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Jay) snapped teammate Chantell Alford's five-week reign as Rookie of the Week, but she extended the Terriers' hold on it in the process to nine of 13 weeks this season, including the last six straight.
Pilypaitis, a two-time all-conference first-team member, averaged 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 4.0 steals and 0.5 blocks per game and shot 42.9 (12-of-28) percent from the field, 40 (6-of-15) percent from three-point range, and 88.9 (8-of-9) from the charity stripe last week in two road victories.
The senior guard's most outstanding performance of the week came at Albany on Saturday when she posted her sixth double-double of the year, and 20th of her career, with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while also adding six assists. Pilypaitis shot 50 percent from the field and went 5-of-9 from three-point range. Earlier in the week, she registered 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and six steals in a win at Maine.
Pilypaitis is just four treys shy of tying the all-time conference career record of 245 made three-pointers. She also ranks within the top three all-time in three-point attempts and assists, and is the active leading scorer in America East with 1,840 points. Pilypaitis ranks third in scoring this year with 14.9 ppg.
"Mo" Moran led the Terriers in scoring in their only game of the week. The rookie led Boston U. over Binghamton last Wednesday with 21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals, all while shooting 53.5 (8-for-15) percent from the field. She hit three of her five three-point attempts and knocked down 2-of-3 free-throw shots. It was the seventh time this season that Moran has reached 20 or more points in a game.
Among conference leaders, Moran ranks 10th in scoring (13 ppg), fourth in assists (4.5 apg), fourth in steals (2.2 spg) and second in assist/turnover ratio (1.5).
Honor Roll
The best of the rest last week....
Diana Delva, Sr., C, Hartford
14.5 ppg, 10 rpg, 1.5 spg, 81.3% FG
Candace Williams, Sr., F, New Hampshire
13.0 ppg, 10 rpg, 1.75 apg, 1 bpg, 100% FT
Misha Horsey, Jr., G, Stony Brook
16.5 ppg, 5 rpg, 3.5 apg, 4 spg
Carlee Cassidy, Sr., G, UMBC
14 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2 apg, 1.5 spg
Katelyn Vanderhoff, Fr., G, Maine
12 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.5 spg, 1 apg
Pulling Away
In first place with an 11-0 record, Hartford has put itself in the driver's seat for the top seed in the tournament and home court advantage for the conference title tilt should the Hawks reach that round. Hartford has won 13 straight games, its longest winning streak since a 15-game streak in 2005-06. The Hawks are two full games ahead of second-place Vermont with a 9-2 record, and 2.5 games ahead of a young 8-2 Boston U. team. Both the Terriers and Catamounts visit Chase Arena later this month to cap off the regular-season. In conference play, Hartford leads America East with a scoring defense of a mere 44.6 points per game and a scoring margin of +20.0 points.
Halfway Home
All nine schools have completed at least eight games of the 16-game conference schedule, marking the halfway mark of the America East season. Vermont and Hartford, picked first and second in the preseason poll, sit atop the standings, with the Hawks having a two-game lead over the Catamounts. Boston U. has exceeded expectations so far this season after losing four starters to graduation. Picked in a tie for fourth, the Terriers are currently half a game out of second place. The Seawolves (5-6) were chosen seventh in the preseason poll, but are tied with UMBC (5-6) for fourth-place. Binghamton (4-6) tags along another half game behind, while New Hampshire (3-8), Maine (3-9) and Albany (0-9) round out the poll.
Pink Zone
Beginning this week, the WBCA Pink Zone® initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond, and the America East Conference will once again be a participant as all nine member institutions will hold events. The official dates for Pink Zone is February 12-21, but schools are allowed to pick a date as close to that time frame as possible if they have have no home games during that period. The 2009 campaign raised over $1.3 million, reached over 912,000 fans, unified more than 1,600 participating teams and organizations, and saw 56+ schools break attendance records at their event. Below are this year's Pink Zone dates by school.
January 24 Boston U. (vs. UMBC)
February 10 Vermont (vs. Boston U.)
February 13 Albany (vs. Boston U.)
February 16 Maine (vs. New Hampshire)
February 18 UMBC (vs. Albany)
February 20 Binghamton (vs. Maine)
Feburary 21 Hartford (vs. Boston U.)
New Hampshire (vs. Albany)
February 27 Stony Brook (vs. UMBC)
Block Party
Hartford senior foward Erica Beverly (Bridgeport, Conn./Kolbe Cathedral), who stands at 6-feet tall, is just one block away from entering the conference's all-time career blocks leaders. Beverly, averaging 2.3 per game this year, currently has 184 career rejections.
All-Time Blocks
1. 231, Jamie Cassidy, Maine, 1996-2000
2. 220, Katasha Artis, Northeastern, 1992-95
3. 218, Laura Franceski, Binghamton, 2005-09
4. 197, Colleen McNamara, Delaware, 1991-95
5. 185, Stacey Porrini, Maine, 1993-97
6. 184, Erica Beverly, Hartford, 2005-
Making The Grade
Vermont senior May Kotsopoulos (Waterloo, Ontario) was named to the five-player 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District I First Team for the second straight year as announced by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Director's of America) on Thursday, February 4. Kotsopoulos, the league's leading scorer, is now eligible to be named a member of the 2010 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team, which will be released in March, for the second straight season. Kotospoulos is a business administration major at Vermont and boasts a 3.66 GPA. She was named both the 2008 and 2009 America East Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete and is a four-year Dean's List student.
Raining Three's
Vermont's Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario/St. Peter), UMBC's Carlee Cassidy (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill) and Binghamton's Erica Carter (Naperville, Ill./Naperville) are all climbing up the America East record book for three-pointers made. Pilypaitis remains in second place in conference history with 241 career treys made, just four shy of tying the all-time record. Cassidy, with 233 long field-goals, leaps into third place, only behind Pilypaitis and Northeastern's Melissa Kowalski ('04) who holds the record of 245. Carter jumped into the eighth spot with 207 career three-pointers made. All three are already the all-time leaders at their respective schools and rank 1-2-4 in America East this season.
All-Time Three-Point Field Goals Made
1. 245, Melissa Kowalski, Northeastern, 00-04
2. 241, Courtnay Pilypaitis, Vermont, 06-
3. 233, Carlee Cassidy, UMBC, 06-
4. 222, MaryLynne Schaefer, Hartford, 05-09
5. 219, Cindy Blodgett, Maine, 94-98
6. 210, Ashley Underwood, Maine, 03-07
7. 208, Kristi Dini, Boston U., 05-09
8. 207, Erica Carter, Binghamton, 06-
9. 197, Jen Schumacher, Albany, 02-06
Helping Hand
Pilypaitis is also among the league's all-time elite in dishing out assists. She handed out 10 assists last week to reach 593 career handouts. That total gives Pilypaitis the program record and puts her third all-time in conference history. Pilypaitis' 500th assist earlier this season made her the first-ever America East player to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.
All-Time Assists
1. 759, Amy Vachon, Maine, 96-00
2. 605, Maureen DiJulia, Hartford, 94-99
3. 593, Courtnay Pilypaitis, Vermont, 06-
4. 571, Lori Taylor, Vermont, 94-98
5. 554, Christine Kinneary, Boston U., 05-09
6. 487, Cindy Blodgett, Maine, 94-98
7. 475, Andrea Higgins, Boston U., 89-93
Poll Position
In the most current USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll, released every Tuesday, the Hawks received 31 votes, while the Catamounts earned five. Both teams have received votes in the polls throughout the entire 2009-10 regular season. In addition, Hartford has garnered 60 votes in the latest edition of the Associated Press Top-25 Poll announced earlier today. The Catamounts had entered the AP Poll at #24 three weeks ago for the first time since March 15, 1993, while the Hawks are now nearing their first-ever national ranking.
America East In The RPI Report
This week's edition of Collegiate Basketball News' RPI Report ranks America East 14th among 33 Division conferences, staying even with last week's ranking. In comparison, the league ranked 21st a year ago. The improvement can be heavily attributed to the league's non-conference strength of schedule, which ranked seventh-toughest in the country. Only four other non-FBS conferences rank higher than America East in the RPI: Colonial (8th), Atlantic-10 (9th), Missouri Valley (11th) and WCC (13th). America East teams have a combined 14-11 record against those three leagues, including an 11-6 mark against the A-10. The highest the conference has been ranked in the final RPI is 11th in 2005-06. Last season when the league tied a record with three teams in the postseason, America East finished with an RPI rank of 24.
The Teams in the RPI Report
Hartford (27) remains the highest-ranked America East team in the report, edging up one spot from last week's ranking. Vermont (47) is also ranked in the top 50. Eight of the nine teams are ranked higher in this week's RPI than where they finished in last season's final ranking, with seven of those eight seeing improvements of at least 36 spots. New Hampshire saw the largest leap from last week to this week, moving up 13 spots after a 1-1 week (win vs. Stony Brook; loss at Hartford). Albany (+11), UMBC (+7), Vermont (+4), Boston U. (+3) and Hartford (+1) also all saw positive movement this week.
Against the Best
To get into postseason tournaments - and then succeed in them - you must compete against the best teams. Over a third of the league's non-conference games this year (45 of 113) were against teams which qualified for the NCAA or WNIT postseason tournaments last season. Below is how the league fared against those teams.
vs. NCAA Teams 5-16 (.238)
->wins over Dartmouth (x2), Temple, Sacred Heart, Louisville
vs. WNIT Teams 7-17 (.292)
->wins over Central Conn., Harvard, Boston College, Coppin State, Dayton, Bowling Green, Canisius
vs. All Postseason Teams 12-33 (.267)
Out Of League, Out of Sight
The regular-season non-conference schedule is officially complete with the conference finishing with a 51-62 (.451) record against some of the toughest competition in the country. It is the highest non-conference winning percentage since the 2006-07 season when the league finished at 56-60 (.483).
Star Tracker
Throughout the season, we will track the statistics of the five players named to the preseason all-conference team by the coaches.
Player, Team Key Stats
E. Beverly, UH 8.9 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 2.3 bpg, 2.3 apg
C. Pilypaitis, UVM 14.9 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 5.0 apg
M. Kotsopoulos, UVM 17.8 ppg, 2.5 apg, 1.7 spg
C. Cassidy, UMBC 13.4 ppg, 2.4 3FGM, 2.1 apg
D. Delva, UH 14.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.8 bpg, 67% FG
Freshman Scorers
Whenever a high-scoring rookie such as Boston U.'s Chantell Alford (West Haven, Conn./Wilbur Cross) comes into the league, the question always arises: who is the highest scoring freshman in league history? Alford does currently rank among the highest-scoring freshmen ever in America East, but there have been quite a few talented freshmen in conference history, led by current Maine coach Cindy Blodgett's 20.1 ppg during her rookie campaign.
Name, School GP Pts. Avg.
1. Cindy Blodgett, Maine (94-95) 30 602 20.1
2. Laura Seiden, UNH (89-90) 28 514 19.0
3. Rachel Bouchard, Maine (87-88) 28 484 17.3
4. Katrina Martin, Drexel (00-01) 29 479 16.5
5. Katie Terhune, Boston U. (00-01) 27 438 16.2
6. Joanne McKay, Vermont (84-85) 24 379 15.8
7. Keisha Carmichael, CCSU (88-89) 26 407 15.7
8. Kris Kinney, UNH (85-86) 28 436 15.6
9. Liz Coffin, Maine (84-85) 28 433 15.5
10.Chantell Alford, Boston U. (09-10) 21 428 15.4
11.Kate Gordon, Hofstra (94-95) 28 416 14.9
Season Of One-Thousand Scorers
Boston University senior Aly Hinton (Richboro, Pa./Council Rock) became the latest player to reach 1,000 career points, doing so against Binghamton on February 3. Hinton became the fifth player to reach the mark this season, and is the ninth active player in conference to reach the milestone. Binghamton senior Erica Carter (Naperville, Ill./Naperville) reached it on Monday, January 18 as part of a career night. She scored a career-high 27 points in the Bearcats' victory over the Retrievers to reach the mark. On Sunday, January 24 in Binghamton, New Hampshire senior Amy Simpson (Waterford, Conn./Waterford) accomplished the same feat, scoring eight points to place her at exactly 1,000 points for her career. Carter and Simpson join Hartford's Diana Delva (Stamford, Conn./Westhill) and New Hampshire's Candace Williams (Norfolk, Mass./St. Raphael) as the third and fourth players to eclipse the point total this season.
Clawing Away
Stony Brook junior Kirsten Jeter (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont) sits within striking distance of 1,000 at 965 points. Jeter would become the 10th active player in America East to reach the milestone, and would be the only junior in that elite club.
A Little Unpredictable
Home teams have typically proved to have the upper hand in America East play, owning a 43-29 (.597) record in 2008-09. So far in 2009-10 though, home teams have a winning percentage of just .500 (24-24). Hartford is the only team not to have a conference loss on their home court this year.
Efficiency Is The Name Of The Game
Hartford senior center Diana Delva (Stamford, Conn./Westhill) is on a torrid shooting pace that doesn't seem to let up anytime soon. Delva ranks first in the country in field-goal shooting percentage with a .670 mark, over 12 percent more efficient than the second-best percentage in America East. She is challenging the conference single-season record of .649 set by New Hampshire's Pam Brandell during the 1996-97 season. Through 23 games, Delva is 132-for-197 from the floor while averaging 14.2 points per game.
Streaking in America East
Boston University picked up its 25th straight regular-season conference win before having it snapped against Hartford on January 21. Only twice in league history have there been longer such streaks. Maine won 39 straight against America East opponents over three seasons, while Vermont won 31 straight spanning four seasons.
# wins Team Started Ended
38 Maine Jan 28, 1995 Jan. 30, 1997
31 Vermont Mar 2, 1991 Jan. 20, 1994
25 Boston U. Feb. 27. 2008 Jan. 21, 2010
Triple The Delight
Vermont's Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario/St. Peter) completed her third career triple-double on Sunday, January 10 against Albany to give her one in each of her last three seasons. Her performance of 12 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists was the 17th triple-double in Division I this season, and her rebounds total was the highest of any of the triple-double efforts this season. All three of her feats have been of the points, rebounds, assists variety.
TV Record
America East was 7-4 in non-conference televised games this season. Two of those losses came against top-ranked Connecticut on CPTV. The next televised women's game is Hartford's visit to Vermont on Tuesday, January 26. The game will air live on NESN beginning at 7 p.m.
Coaching Milestones
Vermont Head Coach Sharon Dawley reached a career mark with her team's win over Maine on January 7. Dawley earned her 250th career coaching win and now enters this week with a career record of 257-147 (.636) over 16 seasons. Earlier this season, Hartford Head Coach Jennifer Rizzotti reached her 200th career victory on December 21 in the Hawks' win over Coppin State at Chase Arena. Rizzotti, who has spent her entire coaching career in West Hartford, has a 212-119 (.640) record. Boston University's Kelly Greenberg (189 wins) and UMBC's Phil Stern (184) are next up to reach the 200-win mark. Greenberg also just picked up her 100th victory with the Terrier program on Wednesday, January 13 at Stony Brook.
Home Cookin'
Home courts have been kind to both Hartford and Albany this year. The Hawks own an unblemished 11-0 mark at home this season, while the Great Danes are 5-5, but started out going 5-0 for the first time in their Division I history. Hartford puts its record to the test on TV against Binghamton on February 18, while Albany looks for its first America East win at SEFCU Arena this Wednesday, hosting Stony Brook.