Maine’s Rowe named to America East’s first team

Justin Rowe was one of two players from the University of Maine men’s basketball team named to America East All-Conference teams on Friday.

Rowe, a 7-foot junior center who is averaging 12.9 points and eight rebounds per game to go along with his school-record 111 blocked shots, was the only Black Bear named to the conference’s first team.

Errick Greene was named to the second team for the Black Bears. Greene, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, averaged 17.3 points per game for UMaine during the regular season.

For the second time in America East history, one school won the top three men’s basketball awards. Head coach Tom Brennan, sophomore guard T.J. Sorentine and rookie forward Taylor Coppenrath of the University of Vermont were named the Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year, respectively.

The last school to accomplish the feat was Drexel with Coach of the Year Bill Herrion, Player of the Year Malik Rose, and Rookie of the Year Mike DeRockis in 1995-1996.

Brennan has guided Vermont to a school-record 20-7 record and the team’s first No. 1 seed in the America East Championship. Brennan was also Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1998. Brennan and Herrion are the only coaches to have won the award more than twice.

Sorrentine leads the league in scoring with 19.4 points per game, is fourth in the league with 107 assists and a conference-best 87 3-pointers. He was Rookie of the Year last season. Sorrentine is the third sophomore to earn the title of Player of the Year. The previous two were Speedy Claxton of the Philadelphia 76ers and the late Reggie Lewis, formerly of the Boston Celtics.

Coppenrath, who sat out last season as a redshirt, was fourth in the league in scoring with 17 points per game, third in blocks with 1.3 per game, fourth in field-goal percentage with 51.3 percent, and sixth in rebounding with 6.9 rebounds per game.