Prior to the start of the 2008-09 campaign, the coaches of America East voted and projected that the University of Vermont would be the conference’s top team.
The Catamounts earned five of nine available first-place votes. The other ballots were cast to the University of Hartford ‘-‘- the defending America East champions. The Hawks, perhaps agitated by a lack of respect, vented their anger and played the proverbial ‘lack of respect’ card to a shocking Nov. 21 upset of then-No. 5 Duke University at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Boston University women’s basketball team finished third in that poll and earned zero first-place votes.
Yet, heading into this weekend, with every America East team exactly halfway through its conference schedule, the Terriers are the ones perched atop the conference standings.
BU (14-6, 8-0 AE) currently holds a slim one-game lead over Hartford for the top spot, while the Catamounts (12-9, 6-2) are looming in third. The Terriers have beaten every team in the conference, and could all but bury one of their two biggest competitors with a win at Vermont tomorrow at 1 p.m.
The teams’ first meeting, a Jan. 10 showdown at Case Gymnasium, was a statement game of sorts for the Terriers. Fueled by a 24-point performance by senior co-captain Jesyka Burks-Wiley, BU controlled the game from the opening tip, starting off on a 10-1 run and never allowing the Catamounts to get closer than seven points of the lead on the way to a 58-47 victory.
The key for BU in that game was its team defense. The Terriers held the conference’s third-most prolific offense ‘-‘- Vermont is averaging 69.1 points per game ‘-‘- to an abysmal .257 shooting percentage.
Senior Amarachi Umez-Eronini, the ‘best defender in the conference by far’ according to classmate Christine Kinneary, led the defensive charge. Although she played just 15 minutes because of foul trouble, Umez-Eronini’s staunch defense was the main reason that UVM junior Courtnay Pilypaitis ‘-‘- the reigning America East Player of the Year ‘-‘- struggled to find room to work in the offensive end.
Pilypaitis still managed to put up 17 points ‘-‘- a tribute to her offensive talents ‘-‘- but did so on just 6-of-17 shooting. Additionally, the 6-foot-1 guard turned the ball over four times.
The Terriers called upon an aggressive full-court press in the first meeting, a strategy BU coach Kelly Greenberg plans to replicate.
‘We’re going to continue to pick them up full court, whether [it’s after a] make or miss,’ Greenberg said. ‘We’re going to make it difficult for Pilypaitis to get any running game going for them, which for her usually means long passes and not necessarily pushing it with the ball.’
One of the few offensive strong points for Vermont in the game was the play of senior Kelli Poles, who pulled down 15 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end
‘One of the changes we’ll probably make will be crowding the post area a little bit more because we thought that was how Poles got them going ‘-‘- with her offensive rebounding because of her size,’ Greenberg said.
Game Notes: Burks-Wiley was recognized yesterday by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association as an honorable mention for the National Player of the Month award. The Kansas City, Mo., native averaged 22.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, posting four double-doubles in January. . . . Senior Kristi Dini is 15 3-pointers away from breaking the career record for treys by a BU player. . . . Greenberg said yesterday that junior forward Aly Hinton is ‘not at 100 percent, and probably won’t be for the rest of the year.’ Hinton, who scored 16 points and pulled down five rebounds Wednesday against Albany, has been slowed physically all season long after having two off-season knee surgeries.
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