The Cross Insurance Arena in Portland was a successful host site for the first ever America East women’s basketball tournament held at a neutral site.
The tournament, which began in the 1984-85 season, had always been held at an on-campus facility.
The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were held on Saturday and Sunday with four games on Saturday and two on Sunday.
The fourth-seeded University of Maine and No. 2 Albany emerged as the two finalists and they will collide in Albany for the second straight year on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
The tournament will return to Portland next season but it will expand from two days to three days. A ninth team, UMass Lowell, will be eligible for postseason play after serving its NCAA-mandated, four-year probationary period after transitioning from Division II to Division I.
Thus, there will be a play-in game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds on Friday to kick off the tourney.
Last Saturday’s afternoon session drew 1,896 fans with top seed New Hampshire ousting No. 8 Stony Brook and No. 4 UMaine eliminating No. 5 Binghamton. In the night session, Albany topped Vermont and Hartford bested University of Maryland Baltimore County. That session drew 941 spectators.
In the Sunday afternoon semifinals, 1,847 watched UMaine upset New Hampshire and Albany edge Hartford.
“It was a very good first year,” said Jared Hager, America East’s director of strategic media. “Saturday’s afternoon session had the highest attendance since 2011 in Hartford and the overall attendance was the second-highest in five years.”
Hager said the event was well-organized and well-run thanks to the staff at the Cross Insurance Arena. The “Fanfest,” put on by the Maine Sports Commission, was also well-received.
The Fanfest involved a number of games for the spectators including cornhole, electric hoops and a table where people can create posters supporting their favorite players and teams.
“It was a solid foundation to build upon. It will be that much bigger and better next season,” said Brian Corcoran, the CEO of Portland’s Shamrock Sports and Entertainment, which teamed with the Maine Sports Commission to submit the bid to host the tournament.
Corcoran had hoped to attract at least 2,000 to each session and was satisfied with the afternoon sessions but wasn’t pleased with the Saturday night session, which didn’t involve either UMaine or New Hampshire.
He noted that the brutally cold temperatures may have kept some fans away.
“We need to do a better job promoting and marketing it,” said Corcoran.
Corcoran said he intends to focus more on promoting tourney passes and the restaurants, hotels and activities in Portland.
“We want fans across America East to make a real weekend of it,” said Corcoran. “We’d like to get more youngsters involved in the tournament next year.”
Coaches and players enjoyed their experience in Portland.
“It was very nicely done,” said UNH coach Maureen Magarity. “Portland is a great city. It was close for us. I liked it being at a neutral site. It was fun.”
“It was amazing,” said UMaine freshman forward Laia Sole. “I’ve never played in front of such a large crowd. And they were into the games. I loved the way they were singing and yelling at the other teams. I really appreciate people coming to the games. It helped us a lot. And our band was amazing.”
“It was nice. We’ve never played there before so it wasn’t really like our home court,” said UMaine senior guard and captain Sigi Koizar. “We had our fan base there. There were a lot of people from Maine so it was kinda like home. It’s a beautiful arena. The court is very nice. Portland is a nice city,”.
UMaine interim head coach Amy Vachon said the crowd was incredible and the tournament was “amazing.
“Shamrock did a great job with the facility,” said Vachon. “It’s a tough place to play. It isn’t necessarily the best basketball facility you’ll find, but I like having the tournament on a neutral court. It’s tough when a higher-seeded team has to play on the home court of a lower-seeded team like Albany had to do at Binghamton last year.”