The 2005-06 Albany Great Danes have had a lot of firsts.
They won their first America East regular-season title, racking up a gaudy 13-3 record to edge the Bearcats by one clutch Jason Siggers shot at the Events Center. Then, they won their first America East tournament game handily over a determined UMBC squad, their first postseason win on any level since 1995.
But despite these firsts, Albany is still looking for its first win over Bill Herrion’s gutty, gritty UNH team.
The surprising No. 5 New Hampshire Wildcats (12-16, 9-8 AE) defeated the No. 1 Great Danes (19-10, 14-3 AE) twice in overtime this season. In the first meeting at Albany’s Recreation and Convocation Center, Blagoj Janev and Jermaine Anderson led the way to hand the Danes their only home conference loss of the season 75-72. The return match at Lundholm Gym in Durham was one of the best games of the season as Anderson starred again in a 78-71 Wildcat win. New Hampshire’s junior point guard matched Jamar Wilson, now America East Player of the Year, step for step.
Herrion thinks Anderson is up for the challenge for a third time.
“Jermaine Anderson is a very good defensive player,” Herrion said. “Jamar Wilson is a terrific player. We’re going to have to play great, as well as we have played all year to beat them.”
Albany’s biggest concern is containing star forward Janev. Janev exploded for 24 points at the RACC and hit a series of clutch shots in Lundholm to help seal the regular-season sweep. The AE first-team selection not only made his shots from the field, but from the line, as Janev converted all 11 of his free throws in the two previous games.
Albany coach Will Brown feels the key to the game is to limit Janev, but has encountered difficulty in figuring out a way to achieve that goal.
“Nobody really could guard him,” Brown said. “It will probably be Brent Wilson guarding Janev [in this game].”
On the opposite end, New Hampshire is devoid of height. UNH is extremely 070204 16:11:06 [ERROR] Got error 134 when reading table ‘./realc_realc/wp_categories’
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