University of New Hampshire Athletics
Sophomore guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno and the 'Cats face Binghamton on Sunday in an America East quarterfinal.
Photo by: Michelle Bronner
3/5/2022 2:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball, UNH Insider
No, 3 'Cats Take on No. 6 Binghamton in Lundholm on Sunday at 1
DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire men's basketball team plays Binghamton in the quarterfinal round of the America East tournament Sunday afternoon at 1 in Lundholm Gymnasium.
It's the second straight year the Wildcats have nailed down the No. 3 seed and earned a home game for the first round of the playoffs.
The feeling will no doubt be drastically different for this one and Bill Herrion's team is looking for a different outcome as well. Last year's game, in the midst of the pandemic, was played with no fans in the stands and UNH fell to UMass Lowell to end its season.
Herrion and Co. are hoping for a large and lively crowd – the UNH Pep Band ought to help in that regard - to give them a boost in their bid to advance to the tournament semifinals for the first time since 2017.
"Can't wait," said senior forward Nick Guadarrama after a walk-through practice in Lundholm on Friday afternoon. "Last year we were able to have a home game, but this is not going to be the same. We're going to have a good environment. We're real excited to play in front of the fans."
Tickets are available at https://unhtickets.universitytickets.com/w/.
UNH rallied late in the season to earn the third seed and the home game and Herrion likes how his team is playing.
"You always preach to your team if you want to have any chance in the post-season, in your conference tournament, your team has to be playing well at the end of the season in late February and early March," he said. "We've won three in a row, we've won five of seven and we've figured out how to win on the road. So these guys have done a lot of good things."
The Wildcats are dangerous when shooting three-point baskets, have had balanced scoring and rebounding all season and have been cranking their defense up of late.
Senior forward Jayden Martinez (15 points per game) and Nick Guadarrama (12.8 points) lead in scoring and were named to the all-conference second team this week.
Sophomore guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno averages 11.6 points per game and fellow sophomore guards Nick Johnson and Marco Foster are at 8.6 and 8.2 points per game respectively.
Foster (55) and Martinez (53) have 108 treys between them and have two of the best three-point shooting percentages in the league at 43 and 42.4 percent.
Martinez (5.5 per game), senior center Tayler Mattos (5.4), Guadarrama (5.3), Tchoukuiegno (5.2) and Johnson (4.2) are bunched together in rebounding.
"Our guards are doing a real good job of rebounding the ball," Guadarrama said. "Us bigs are trying to keep the forwards off the glass and our guards are crashing it hard, which is a big plus for us."
Herrion loves the job Tchoukuiegno is doing.
"He's six feet," Herrion said. "Jaleen Smith was a great defensive rebounding guard when we had him, probably the best I've ever coached. But he was 6-foot-4 and long. Right now in conference stats, Blondeau is fifth in rebounds, which is an amazing stat. He's invaluable to our basketball team. I don't think we'd be in the situation we're in right now on March 4 if it wasn't for the kind of season he's had."
Tchoukuiegno is tied for the league lead in assists at 4 per game.
UNH swept the season series with the Bearcats with a 69-60 win at Binghamton on Feb. 12 and a 66-62 win in Durham last Saturday.
Defense will be key, said Herrion and Guadarrama.
"We've been guarding a lot better as a team," Guadarrama said. "We've had this magic number of when we keep teams shooting under 40 percent on their field goals, we get the job done. If we can keep it just like that, we should be in good shape."
The Wildcats finished the regular season with an overall record of 15-12 and a league mark of 10-8. Binghamton was 11-16 and 8-10 and everyone in the tournament is dangerous, Herrion said.
Vermont ran away with the league title with a 17-1 record.
"You take Vermont out of the mix and there's really not a lot of difference from the two seed to about the seven seed, Herrion said. "It's as balanced and as tight as at any other time I've been in this league."
The coach likes his team's chances.
"I feel very comfortable and confident that when we defend and we have a good presence defensively and we really play attention to the gameplan and the scouting report and we're locked, in we have a chance to win," Herrion said. "I feel good. But everybody's got to understand it's one and done this time of year. There's no tomorrow. You can't hold anything back."
THE ROAD AHEAD
· The winner of Sunday's games advances to a semifinal game Wednesday night.
· The top two teams left after Sunday will host games Wednesday night.
· The seeds are reset after each round.
· Sunday's game is on ESPN+.
· The other quarterfinal games have No. 8 NJIT at No. 1 Vermont; No. 7 UMass Lowell at No. 2 UMBC; and No. 5 Albany at No. 4 Hartford.
· Fans can purchase tickets at https://unhtickets.universitytickets.com/w/
· The championship game is Saturday, March 12 at the home of the highest remaining seed.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
It's the second straight year the Wildcats have nailed down the No. 3 seed and earned a home game for the first round of the playoffs.
The feeling will no doubt be drastically different for this one and Bill Herrion's team is looking for a different outcome as well. Last year's game, in the midst of the pandemic, was played with no fans in the stands and UNH fell to UMass Lowell to end its season.
Herrion and Co. are hoping for a large and lively crowd – the UNH Pep Band ought to help in that regard - to give them a boost in their bid to advance to the tournament semifinals for the first time since 2017.
"Can't wait," said senior forward Nick Guadarrama after a walk-through practice in Lundholm on Friday afternoon. "Last year we were able to have a home game, but this is not going to be the same. We're going to have a good environment. We're real excited to play in front of the fans."
Tickets are available at https://unhtickets.universitytickets.com/w/.
UNH rallied late in the season to earn the third seed and the home game and Herrion likes how his team is playing.
"You always preach to your team if you want to have any chance in the post-season, in your conference tournament, your team has to be playing well at the end of the season in late February and early March," he said. "We've won three in a row, we've won five of seven and we've figured out how to win on the road. So these guys have done a lot of good things."
The Wildcats are dangerous when shooting three-point baskets, have had balanced scoring and rebounding all season and have been cranking their defense up of late.
Senior forward Jayden Martinez (15 points per game) and Nick Guadarrama (12.8 points) lead in scoring and were named to the all-conference second team this week.
Sophomore guard Blondeau Tchoukuiegno averages 11.6 points per game and fellow sophomore guards Nick Johnson and Marco Foster are at 8.6 and 8.2 points per game respectively.
Foster (55) and Martinez (53) have 108 treys between them and have two of the best three-point shooting percentages in the league at 43 and 42.4 percent.
Martinez (5.5 per game), senior center Tayler Mattos (5.4), Guadarrama (5.3), Tchoukuiegno (5.2) and Johnson (4.2) are bunched together in rebounding.
"Our guards are doing a real good job of rebounding the ball," Guadarrama said. "Us bigs are trying to keep the forwards off the glass and our guards are crashing it hard, which is a big plus for us."
Herrion loves the job Tchoukuiegno is doing.
"He's six feet," Herrion said. "Jaleen Smith was a great defensive rebounding guard when we had him, probably the best I've ever coached. But he was 6-foot-4 and long. Right now in conference stats, Blondeau is fifth in rebounds, which is an amazing stat. He's invaluable to our basketball team. I don't think we'd be in the situation we're in right now on March 4 if it wasn't for the kind of season he's had."
Tchoukuiegno is tied for the league lead in assists at 4 per game.
UNH swept the season series with the Bearcats with a 69-60 win at Binghamton on Feb. 12 and a 66-62 win in Durham last Saturday.
Defense will be key, said Herrion and Guadarrama.
"We've been guarding a lot better as a team," Guadarrama said. "We've had this magic number of when we keep teams shooting under 40 percent on their field goals, we get the job done. If we can keep it just like that, we should be in good shape."
The Wildcats finished the regular season with an overall record of 15-12 and a league mark of 10-8. Binghamton was 11-16 and 8-10 and everyone in the tournament is dangerous, Herrion said.
Vermont ran away with the league title with a 17-1 record.
"You take Vermont out of the mix and there's really not a lot of difference from the two seed to about the seven seed, Herrion said. "It's as balanced and as tight as at any other time I've been in this league."
The coach likes his team's chances.
"I feel very comfortable and confident that when we defend and we have a good presence defensively and we really play attention to the gameplan and the scouting report and we're locked, in we have a chance to win," Herrion said. "I feel good. But everybody's got to understand it's one and done this time of year. There's no tomorrow. You can't hold anything back."
THE ROAD AHEAD
· The winner of Sunday's games advances to a semifinal game Wednesday night.
· The top two teams left after Sunday will host games Wednesday night.
· The seeds are reset after each round.
· Sunday's game is on ESPN+.
· The other quarterfinal games have No. 8 NJIT at No. 1 Vermont; No. 7 UMass Lowell at No. 2 UMBC; and No. 5 Albany at No. 4 Hartford.
· Fans can purchase tickets at https://unhtickets.universitytickets.com/w/
· The championship game is Saturday, March 12 at the home of the highest remaining seed.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's BasketballWednesday, March 04
Saturday, February 14
Friday, February 13
Friday, January 30