12/22: Crenca's Beard Thrives, AmEast NEARLY gets sweep & games continue tonight

It's hard to find the will to put up a post that pushes down Ben Crenca's post on beards... but we must soldier on. Wed/Thurs/Fri this week each contain three AE games, so like Congress, the League is working right up until Christmas Eve (need to take advantage of this time without the NBA while we still can).

Game of the Night:
Hartford 86 Marist 89 2OT

SO CLOSE. After getting mauled in the 1st half, Hartford shot 52% in the second half on the way 41 point second half that tied up the game. It's the second straight 3 point loss to a MAAC team -- and Hartford held leads in both OTs before letting it slip away. Frontcourt of the Future? Nate Sikma had the best game of his career with 23 points, 8 boards and otherwise stuffed the statsheet with an assortment of blocks, steals and assists. Looking forward to seeing him play, because he might be the type of player who can turn a program around. Joining him was Jamie Schneck who was putting in work on the boards on the way to a 16 point, 13 rebound double-double. Unfortunately, both fouled out (and so did so starting forward Mark Nwakamma) -- Sikma's removal with 1:15 to play was probably the death knell for the Hawks. Torres? Andres Torres hasn't lived up to our hype of him, but he's slowly coming around and getting back to game speed. The turnovers are too high (5) but a 17 point, 8 assist game to go with 3 steals might be a spark of life. Worldwide Wes: Corban Wroe was more celebrate and Yolanzo Moore had some good games early, but Wes Cole, reigning rookie of the week, has been critical to these near wins with his outside shooting. It's all he does, but when he's hitting, he can keep Hartford close almost single-handedly.

Justin Edwards & The Maine Black Bears 64, Eastern Illinois 60

The Edwards love is, of course, warranted, but in this case it's a travesty not to acknowledge that they player of the game was Ali Fraser. 19 point and 11 rebounds tell some of the story, but in a back and forth through the last ten minutes of the game, Ali was dunk over and rebounding through the entire EIU squad. Gerald McLemore and his 21 points were a huge factor as well, but Ali proved why he's going to be such load in the America East this year. He's a post threat that no one in the league can match -- and perhaps no one can stop. Just wait for the double-doubles to pile up.

Vermont 71 FDU 53

As predicted, a laugher. Vermont too incisive, the game wasn't even this close. The big news was that Big Ben Crenca returned to action ahead of schedule for a solid 15 minutes. Bizarre scheduling that UVM has another game Friday on the road vs. 0-fer Towson. It should at least allow UVM to warm up for future games against Bingo and UMBC....

After the jump, tonight's game and open thread!

In simplest terms, here's what we got tonight:

Game to watch is BU vs a good Bucknell squad... but the game you can watch is UMBC getting slaughtered by Indiana, which will be on ESPN3.