New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to previews, recaps, features and exclusive coverage.

If day one served as any indication of how unpredictable and how exciting the conference season will be, the next two months will be very entertaining on the hardwood.

Five of the eight conference hoops games last night were decided by single digits and four of those five were by six points or less.

Perhaps the two best games of the night featured the squads from New Hampshire and UMBC. The men squared off in Durham while the women tangled in Baltimore. Only a combined eight points separated the teams and the games set the stage for a doozy of a conference season.

The UNH women led by as many as 11 over UMBC and took that lead through the under-eight media timeout in the second half. UMBC, however, closed on a 20-7 run fueled by Erin Brown and Kristin Coles to come away with a 67-65 win. The Baltimore Sun has more from this one.

Meanwhile, the Wildcat and Retriever men were locked up in a good one in Durham. Each team built a ten point lead but UMBC was able to hold on to its lead thanks to a huge night from Chase Plummer. The sophomore continues to impress in his second season in the Retriever black and gold, scoring 23 points and grabbing seven boards last night. Foster’s Daily Democrat has all your postgame reactions from UMBC’s 82-76 win.

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