Binghamton University women’s basketball heads to Hartford for the America East Tournament this Friday, March 13, with the goal of winning three games to win the first conference tournament of its history.

One thing about the coming weekend must be made clear: While Hartford has won three of the past four America East titles, Boston is the favorite this time around.

The Terriers have made themselves the conference’s preeminent team the old fashioned way: by not losing. Boston is 16-0 in conference games this season. With three more wins they will win the conference with a 19-0 record.

“You try not to cry, starting from practice all the way down to when they introduce us with our parents,” senior Amarachi Umez-Eronini told The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s student newspaper. “This is the best moment of our lives, as seniors, going undefeated. It’s just an amazing feeling, knowing that we’ve left behind such a great legacy.”

So, who can beat Boston?

Despite going undefeated, Boston has only won by an average of 8.1 points per game, worse than Hartford and Vermont at 9.7 and 9.6, respectively. If you believe John Hollinger when he writes that “point differential is a better indicator of future success than wins and losses” in his ESPN columns, you believe Boston can be beat.

Hartford, despite two losses to Boston, has not lost to anyone else, and has won the America East in three of the last four seasons. When they played in Hartford the Terriers won an 80-75 nail biter. Can the Terriers knock the Hawks off their perch when it counts, against a Hartford team that will be at home and beat them in last year’s finals?

That much remains to be seen.

Remember, this is the same Hawks team that beat Duke, the No. 6 ranked team in the country, on Nov. 21, and put the America East on notice in the process.

“I hope that people realize that they should take Hartford seriously and we got more recognition that we are a serious basketball team,” said senior Lisa Etienne to ESPN after her team’s huge victory against the Blue Devils.

Vermont is also a team that cannot be counted out this season. In four losses against Boston and Hartford, the Catamounts lost by an average of just seven points. While the Terriers and Hawks are the class of the conference, Vermont is coming into the tournament on the heels of an 84-57 thrashing of Binghamton.

With Albany, Maine, Stony Brook and New Hampshire needing to get through Boston, Hartford and Vermont, respectively (Albany plays Maine in the play-in game with the winner to face Boston), it is highly improbable that those four teams put up a fight for the tournament title. However, Binghamton and UMBC may be possible sleepers. Binghamton is a very balanced team that closed the season with three wins in its last four games.

Should the Bearcats defeat UMBC, they will presumably have a chance to avenge a disheartening 76-75 overtime loss against the Terriers, which proved that the Bearcats could play with them. For the Retrievers, with the conference’s second-best offense and leading scorer in Carlee Cassidy (20.8 points per game) on their side, anything can happen if they get hot this weekend.

So, with the America East Tournament approaching, it would not be fair to say that Boston at 16-0 is not the preeminent favorite. But with some fierce competition lurking behind them, anything can happen.