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Albany
At the end of the night, Pat Duquette, the head coach of the UMass Lowell basketball team, stopped UAlbany’s Will Brown in the handshake line and told him the Danes were a lot better team on Wednesday night than they were the first week of January.
Of course, UAlbany had just smacked the River Hawks around SEFCU Arena 90-77. On Jan. 5, the first night of the America East Conference season, UMass Lowell surprised the Danes 85-79 in Massachusetts.
When Duquette met with the media a few minutes later, he was told that Brown described the America East this way: “Vermont and everyone else.”
Duquette wasn’t about to agree with that and threw a bouquet toward the Danes.
“Not by much,” Duquette said. “I don’t think Albany is far behind (Vermont).”
The Danes, for the most part, manhandled the River Hawks. UAlbany started the second half with a solid run, outscoring UMass Lowell 13-3. Sophomore guard David Nichols, with his mother in the stands from Chicago, scored seven of his team-high 24 points in the spurt. Nichols has scored in double figures in all but two games for UAlbany, which is 14-10 overall and 5-4 in the America East Conference.
UALBANY 90, UMass-Lowell 77
UMASS-LOWELL (9-15, 3-6)
Player Min FG FT R A Pts
Thomas 34 10-13 6-7 7 2 26
Livingston 31 1-4 0-0 1 3 3
Jones 35 8-11 0-1 5 5 18
Perry 22 1-10 0-1 5 1 2
Harris 30 3-6 3-4 2 0 10
Borovac 14 1-4 0-0 5 4 3
Shea 4 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Primerano 18 4-7 1-1 2 0 11
Wolter 12 2-3 0-0 2 0 4
Team 1
Totals 30-58 10-14 30 15 77
UALBANY (14-10, 5-4)
Player Min FG FT R A Pts
Rowley 25 0-2 0-0 5 2 0
Stire 19 4-9 4-6 9 2 12
Cremo 31 9-15 3-3 4 5 23
Campbell 26 2-4 4-5 3 1 8
Nichols 35 9-17 3-4 4 8 24
Anderson 15 3-4 0-0 1 1 8
Grayson 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Martin-Garcia 1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Fruscio 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ennema 21 0-3 0-0 0 0 0
Charles 25 5-6 5-6 5 1 15
Team 2
Totals 32-61 19-24 33 20 90
Halftime—UAlbany, 39-35. 3-point goals—UAlbany 7-13 (Ennema 0-1, Anderson 2-3, Nichols 3-5, Cremo 2-4). UMass-Lowell 7-17 (Primerano 2-3, Borovac 1-2, Harris 1-4, Perry 0-3, Jones 2-2, Livingston 1-3). Fouls—UAlbany 18 (Charles 3, Anderson 1, Nichols 2, Campbell 3, Cremo 3, Stire 4, Rowley 2). UMass-Lowell 18 (Wolter 1, Primerano 1, Shea 1, Borovac 1, Harris 3, Perry 3, Jones 1, Livingston 4, Thomas 3). Blocked shots—UAlbany 2 (Charles 1, Stire 1). UMass-Lowell 2 (Livingston 1, Thomas 1). Turnovers—UAlbany 10 (Anderson 2, Nichols 2, Campbell 1, Cremo 2, Stire 2, Rowley 1). UMass-Lowell 14 (Wolter 1, Primerano 1, Shea 1, Borovac 2, Harris 1, Perry 1, Jones 5, Livingston 1, Thomas 1). Steals—UAlbany 7 (Campbell 4, Cremo 1, Anderson 1, Rowley 1). UMass-Lowell 6 (Shea 1, Harris 1, Jones 2, Thomas 2). Technical fouls—None. A—2,512.
This victory was the fifth in six games for UAlbany, which started the league season with three losses. It also put the Danes in a fourth-place tie with New Hampshire, which lost at second-place Stony Brook (64-61) on Wednesday night. Stony Brook plays the Danes at SEFCU on Saturday night.
Against UMass Lowell, the Danes placed three others in double figures. Joe Cremo had 23 points.
For Cremo, it was the 11th time this season he has scored 20 or more points in a game. UAlbany also got 15 points off the bench from Travis Charles and 12 points and nine rebounds from Greig Stire, who was limited to only 19 minutes because of foul trouble.
Those who coach and play for UAlbany were not going to get too excited about Duquette’s comment about the Danes and Vermont. The America East Tournament does start on March 1, but there are still seven regular-season games left to play.
“That’s a long ways away for us,” Cremo said. “It’s kind of coach talk, I guess. We just want to get better every day. I know I am not going to let anyone settle and I know David (Nichols) won’t let anyone settle, either.”
Brown wasn’t going to retreat from his earlier statement about Vermont, but his competitive nature would not allow him to stay quiet.
“I would love the opportunity to play Vermont three times because that would mean we’re playing, probably, an important game for the third game,” Brown said. “But we have too many opponents before that.”
The Danes lost to Vermont at SEFCU 60-49 on Jan. 25 and still have to travel to Burlington on Feb. 22.
Brown says his team is taking “baby” steps as they continue the process. In the past five wins, the Danes have won by an average margin of 18 points. The 90 points scored against UMass Lowell was the most UAlbany has scored against a Division I opponent this season (the Danes did score 97 against Division III Oneonta).
“Right now, we are buying into what the coaches are telling us,” Nichols said.
UMass Lowell has lost its past five league games and is 3-6 in the league and 9-15 overall. The River Hawks were led in scoring by junior Jahad Thomas, who had a game-high 26 points. Brown and his team want nothing more right now that to go on seven one-game winning streaks.
“By the time we get to the America East Tournament, we want to feel really good about ourselves,” Brown said.
twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin
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