Women's Basketball Seeded Seventh for America East Conference Championship

Cambridge, Mass. - The University of Hartford will be the top seed and host this week's America East Conference Women's Basketball Championship. The event, which will be held from March 4-7 at Chase Arena, will be combined with the men's tournament for the first time ever.

Seeded seventh, UAlbany will face Vermont, the reigning tournament champion and second seed, in Friday's first quarterfinal game at 12:00 p.m. The Catamounts posted a 23-6 overall record. Vermont won both regular-season meetings, but the Great Danes put forth a much stronger performance in the second meeting which ended in a nine-point defeat. The two programs will play for the first time in the conference tournament.

The Great Danes, who finished 11-18 overall and 4-12 in America East play, ended the regular season by winning four of their last seven conference games. Senior Charity Iromuanya and sophomore Felicia Johnson have been putting up career numbers this season. Iromuanya averages a team-high 11.4 points and ranks third in the league with 2.4 steals per game, while Johnson scores at a 9.4 clip and dishes out 3.6 assists per contest. Ebone Henry (11.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and Julie Forster (8.9 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 1.4 bpg) are among a conference-high three freshmen that start. Henry, a swing player, has broken the all-time freshman single-season scoring record (320) and Division I single-game freshman scoring mark (26). Forster, a walk-on forward, has eclipsed the single-season record for rebounds by a freshman (251) and leads the conference in boards per game (8.7).

Vermont, which starts four seniors and has been ranked as high as 24th nationally by the Associated Press, is paced by senior guards Courtnay Pilypaitis and May Kotsopoulos. Pilypaitis, the team's floor general, has been named the league's player of the year, rookie of the year and most outstanding player in the conference tournament. She ranks among the top five America East leaders in scoring (14.8 pg), rebounding (7.5 pg), assists (4.9 pg) and steals (2.8 pg). Kotsopoulos, a shooting guard and returning all-conference honoree, averages a league-best 17.9 points per game.

The America East semifinals, scheduled for Sunday, March 7, will be streamed online at AmericaEast.com. The championship will be held at the site of the highest remaining seed on Saturday, March 13 at 8:00 p.m. and will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet.

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2010 America East Conference Women's Basketball Championship
(University of Hartford, Chase Arena, West Hartford, Conn.)
Thursday, March 4 - First Round
Game 1 - #8 Maine (8-20, AE 4-12) vs. #9 New Hampshire (8-21, AE 3-13), 6:00 p.m.
Friday, March 5 - Quarterfinal Round
Game 2 - #2 Vermont (23-6, AE 13-3) vs. #7 Albany (11-18, AE 4-12), 12:00 p.m.
Game 3 - #3 Boston University (15-13, AE 11-5) vs. #6 UMBC (13-16, AE 7-9), 2:15 p.m.
Game 4 - #1 Hartford (25-3, AE 16-0) vs. Game 1 winner, 6:00 p.m.
Game 5 - #4 Stony Brook (9-19, AE 7-9) vs. #5 Binghamton (11-18, AE 7-9), 8:15 p.m.
Sunday, March 7 - Semifinal Round
Game 6 - Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 11:00 a.m.
Game 7 - Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 13 - Championship
(At higher seed's facility)
Game 8 - Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 8:00 p.m. (Comcast SportsNet)

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information