Vermont Pulls Away Late From Boston U.,
Moves to America East Final
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Vermont and Boston
University were evenly matched for about 30 minutes, but a late Catamount run
gave second-seeded UVM a 69-52 victory over third-seeded Boston U. Sunday
afternoon at the Chase Family Arena at Reich Family Pavilion in the semifinals
of the 2010 America East Championship presented by Newman's Own.
The Catamounts (25-6, 13-3 America East
Conference) will now play in their 11th America East Championship title game.
The defending tournament champions will be seeking their sixth conference
title.
"This means everything," Vermont head coach
Sharon Dawley said. "It would have been
upsetting not to get to the final game. It's a dream of the seniors, and we
happen to have four who are so invested in the program."
The loss denies the Terriers (16-14, 11-5
AE) their seventh trip to the America East title game in the last eight
seasons.
Vermont rode a balanced scoring attack to
victory, with four players scoring in double figures. Senior guard Courtnay Pilypaitis grabbed 16
rebounds to go with her 12 points to post her 11th double-double of the season.
The turning point in the game came with
about 10 minutes left. Down five, Boston
U. earned seven consecutive free throws, but made only one.
The missed shots left the Terriers shaken
up, and they would not recover the rest of the way. The team shot only 26.9 percent from the
field, in large part because of cold shooting down the stretch.
"It affected us quite a bit," Boston U.
head coach Kelly Greenberg said. "I
thought our body language changed a lot because of that. The girls were quite discouraged by those
missed free throws."
Early in the game, however, the Terriers
held a slim advantage, leading the Catamounts for most of the first half, but
by no more than six points.
Vermont then closed the half on a 9-2 run
to go into the break up 32-26, the team's largest lead to that point.
The advantage was short-lived, as Boston U.
came out of the half with a 9-3 spurt of its own to draw even at 35. The Catamounts would then take control of the
game, thanks in large part to the Terriers' poor foul shooting, and outscored
Boston U. 34-17 down the stretch.
The Terriers were led by sophomore guard
Alex Young, who scored a game-high 14 points, but was only 3-of-17 from the
field
No. 21 Hartford Rolls To America East Title Game
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)- Mary Silvia came off the bench to
score 17 points and No. 21 Hartford beat Stony Brook 65-53 on Sunday, giving
the Hawks 20 straight wins heading into next weekend's America East title game.
The Hawks could be without All-Conference player
Erica Beverly, who became the first Hartford player to record 1,000 points and
1,000 rebounds in a season earlier in the game. She was fouled by Misha Horsey
going up for a layup late in the game and hurt her knee.
Beverly finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Top-seeded Hartford (27-3) will host second-seeded
Vermont in the title game. The Catamounts beat No. 3-seeded Boston on Sunday.
It will be the first time since 2000 the top two seeds meet for the conference
title.
"I
think it's a great matchup and I'm really excited about it," said Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizzotti about next weekend's championship game against Vermont. "I think it's what's
best for this league. Both Hartford and Vermont have had great
seasons all around and have garnered national attention. So I think it's only
fitting that in a year when we've had two teams being ranked in the Top 25 that
they end up advancing and playing in in the final against each other."
Daphne Elliott added 13 points off the bench for
Hartford, which improved to 18-0 in league play countig the tournament. The
Hawks' reserves outscored their counterparts 44-0.
Kirsten Jeter scored 19 points for Stony Brook
(10-20).