ALBANY, N.Y. - The America East Tournament continues as the #2 UAlbany women's basketball team hosts #3 Vermont.
 
Masks are no longer required to attend UAlbany's indoor athletic events.
 
GAME INFORMATION
 
#3 Vermont at #2 UAlbany
DATE: Tuesday, March 8
TIME: 7:00 PM
SITE: SEFCU Arena - Albany, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 21-9, 13-5 America East | Vermont 20-10, 13-5 America East
SERIES RECORD: 25-21, UAlbany leads
STATS: UAlbanySports.com
TICKETS: UAlbanySports.com
STREAM: ESPN+
 
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
 
*records as of 3/7
 
HEAD COACH COLLEEN MULLEN
"Vermont is a talented team that has a balanced inside/out attack. They all have an ability to score points, which means we need to be locked into our game plan. Offensively, our focus is to execute the details and to play with pace. We must play hard and smart for 40 minutes."
 
GREAT DANE REWIND

• With a defense-first mentality, UAlbany is holding its opponents to just 48.5 points per game to own the second-best scoring defense in the nation.
• In addition to scoring defense, the Great Danes are 34th in the country, allowing just a .364 field goal percentage from their opponents.
• UAlbany opened the season on a strong note, defeating Hofstra (11/10) for the first time in program history. The 29-point victory over the Pride served as the first of seven games, so far, in which the Great Danes won by at least 20 points.
• The Great Danes closed their non-conference slate with a 7-4 record.
• UAlbany split the Hartford, Vermont, and Stony Brook series and swept NJIT, Binghamton, UMBC, UMass Lowell, and New Hampshire.
• UAlbany was undefeated at home (13-0), until the second-to-last game of the season when Maine beat the Great Danes, 49-45, on February 23. They currently own a 15-1 record at SEFCU Arena.
• Closing the regular season, UAlbany came back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth beginning of the fourth quarter to beat Stony Brook, 57-56, on February 26.
• Most recently, the Great Danes defeated New Hampshire, 49-44, in the America East Quarterfinal (3/5) to advance to the semifinal.
• Junior Helene Haegerstrand (360, 12.0 per game) and sophomore Kayla Cooper (336, 11.2 per game) lead the team with their respective point tallies.
• Redshirt-sophomore Abby Robinson leads the team, shooting 75% (6-8) from 28 minutes of play in 10 games. Senior Lucia Decortes holds a .539 (69-128) shooting percentage, leading all players who have seen the court for more than 40 minutes this season.
• Haegerstrand leads from outside the arc with a .375 (51-136) shooting percentage.
• Cooper leads the team as the only player with over 150 rebounds. She has totaled 207 (6.9 pg) so far with 131 defensive and 76 offensive rebounds. Decortes passed the 100-rebound mark against Maine, totaling 136 so far, while Ellen Hahne notched her 100th rebound in the America East Quarterfinal, tallying 102 so far.
• Freshman Lilly Phillips owns a team-high 68 assists. Redshirt-sophomore Morgan Haney is close behind with 67.
• Haney (40) holds the transition spotlight with her respective steal total. 
• Decortes has compiled a team-high 44 blocks. Eleven players on the 13-person roster have totaled at least two blocks.
• Every single player from the 13-person roster saw action and contributed with a point or an assist in the season-opening game - Hofstra. 
• Of the 1,711 points scored in 30 games, the bench has tallied 470 points. This includes half (26) of the 52 points scored at Merrimack (11/16), almost half (29) of the 60 points scored against Bryant (12/1), almost half (32) of the 65 points scored against Canisius (12/15), and almost half (28) of the 61 points scored against New Hampshire (2/16). The bench totaled over half of the points scored in the America East Quarterfinal against New Hampshire (26 of 49 points).
• As a team, UAlbany is hitting 40.9% from the field, 32.4% outside the arc, and 66.3% from the free-throw line. 
• The Great Danes are averaging 57.0 points per game, 35.5 rebounds per game, and 12.8 assists per game.

 
2022 POSTSEASON AWARDS

• America East
  • Sixth Player of the Year - Morgan Haney
  • First Team All-Conference - Helene Haegerstrand
  • Second Team All-Conference - Kayla Cooper
  • All-Defensive Team - Lucia Decortes
  • All-Rookie Team - Lilly Phillips

 
ABOUT VERMONT

• The Catamounts are 20-10 overall with a 13-5 America East record.
• Vermont earned a 2-4 record in November with four wins and one non-conference win in December to close the out-of-league schedule with a 6-5 record.
• Stony Brook and Maine swept the series against Vermont but the Catamounts swept Hartford, New Hampshire, UMBC, UMass Lowell, and Binghamton. 
• The Catamounts split the series against UAlbany.
• Emma Utterback (402, 13.4) and Anna Olson (369, 12.3) lead the team in points.
• Playing all 30 games, Olson also owns a team-high .537 shooting percentage.
• Two players who have seen the court in five games or less lead outside the arc but of those having seen more than five games, starter Josie Larkins leads with a .396 shooting percentage from downtown.
• Olson also owns a team-high 194 rebounds (6.5 per game) with 124 defensive rebounds and 70 offensive rebounds.
• Utterback (84 assists, 43 steals) and Olson (39 blocks) both lead the team with their respective stat totals.
• As a team, Vermont is hitting 41.9% from the field, 31.9% outside the arc, and 72.9% from the free-throw line.
• The Catamounts are averaging 61.7 points per game, 34.1 rebounds per game, and 14.2 assists per game.

 
SERIES AGAINST THE CATAMOUNTS

• UAlbany leads the all-time series, 25-21.
• Current head coach, Colleen Mullen, owns an even 3-3 record against Vermont during her time with the Great Danes.
• Both games in the series were postponed during the 2020-21 season.
• In 2019-20, UAlbany won the first game of the season and the Catamounts won the second.
• During the regular season of 2021-22, the teams split a home/away weekend. First, the Great Danes won at home, 54-52, on Saturday, Feb. 12 before Vermont won in Burlington, 63-55, on Monday, February 14.

 
AROUND THE AMERICA EAST

• Maine finished the season as the America East Regular Season Champions. As the first seed in the tournament, the Black Bears hosted, and beat, eighth-seeded Hartford. Maine will host #4 NJIT for the semifinals.
• Stony Brook finished second in the regular season with a 14-4 record but is ineligible for the tournament.
• Vermont and UAlbany closed the regular season tied with a 13-5 conference record. In defeating the Seawolves, the Great Danes won the tiebreaker and began the tournament hosting #7 New Hampshire as the second seed.
• After defeating #6 Binghamton, the Catamounts head to UAlbany for a semifinal matchup.
• UMBC did not qualify for the tournament after tallying just two wins.
• Following the close of the non-conference season Stony Brook (9-1), UAlbany (7-4), and Vermont (6-5) were the only three teams with a winning record. NJIT (5-6), Binghamton (4-6), UMass Lowell (3-6), Maine (3-7), New Hampshire (3-8), UMBC (1-9), and Hartford (0-11) each had losing records before the start of the conference season.

 
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

• Women's
  • Saturday (Quarterfinals)
    • #1 Maine 63, #8 Hartford 49
    • #2 UAlbany 49, #7 New Hampshire 44
    • #3 Vermont 71, #6 Binghamton 63
    • #4 NJIT 47, #5 UMass Lowell 33
  • Tuesday (Semifinals)
    • #4 NJIT at #1 Maine, 7 pm
    • #3 Vermont at #2 UAlbany, 7 pm
  • Friday (Championship)
    • Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed

 
WHAT'S UP, PRESEASON

• The Great Dane women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll. With six first-place votes and 78 total points, Stony Brook was voted to finish first with Maine just behind (74 points, three first-place votes). 
• UAlbany added four new players to the roster for the 2021-22 season - Koi Sims, Lilly Phillips, Abby Ray, and Freja Werth

 
DRIVE THE LANE WITH UALBANY HOOPS

• UAlbany has expanded its partnership with ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team and City Line Bar & Grill.
• Coaches Colleen Mullen and Dwayne Killings, along with select student-athletes, will join ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team's Charlie Voelker and Dan Bahl every Monday from 6-7 pm live from City Line Bar & Grill for a weekly segment entitled 'Drive the Lane with UAlbany Hoops'.
• Fans are invited to come out to City Line Bar & Grill to join Coach Mullen, Coach Kills, the student-athletes, and the ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team crew. 
• Food and drink specials will be available on a weekly basis as the teams embark on their new seasons and talk hoops every Monday.

 
UP NEXT

• If the Great Danes beat Vermont, they will advance to the America East Championship game on Saturday, March 11 at 5 pm. If Maine wins the other semifinal game, UAlbany will head to Maine; if NJIT wins, the Great Danes will host the championship.

For more information on the University at Albany women's basketball team, follow the squad's official social media accounts shown below.
Twitter - @ualbanywbb
Instagram - @ualbanywbb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyWBB