Arena #159: Bender Arena - American vs. Boston

For the 11^th and final game on my trip, I visited Bender Arena on the west side of Washington, DC for a Patriot League matchup between the American University Eagles and the Boston University Terriers.  Bender Arena served as Arena #159 and my second of four venues within the District of Columbia.  When I go to these games, there’s 3 things I usually try to collect to remember my visit by: a ticket stub, a program, and a souvenir cup.  Now obviously a lot of the smaller schools have very minimal concession stands so souvenir cups aren’t very prevalent outside of bigger schools, but usually programs and ticket stubs are pretty easy to come by.  Disappointingly, I was unable to secure either of those items for the first time in 159 stops at American U as there were no programs being sold and even though I ordered a ticket online for will call pickup so I would get a ticket stub, I was instead told I had to use an e-ticket they sent me with my order, which to me defeats the whole purpose of ordering a ticket for will call.

Beyond that, the layout inside Bender Arena is a bit interesting in that while the building is basically a big giant box for multi-purpose use, they utilize temporary bleachers on all four sides of the court when a game is being played, which makes the sight lines a little odd, especially if you’re forced to watch from the baseline seats, which wasn’t necessary in this game given the crowd numbered in the hundreds, not even close to the capacity of the building.  Sadly, I had to leave this game a little early to make sure I had time to get to the airport to head home, but for the 28 minutes or so of action that I did see, the game was quite competitive as evidenced by the 41-40 American lead when I had to depart at the Under 12 timeout of the second half.  American ultimately won the game by 4 to defend their home court in this contest.

Entrance to Bender Arena on the campus of American University

Inside Bender Arena early in the contest between the American Eagles and Boston Terriers 

American and Boston fighting for a rebound

Boston with a baby hook in the lane

Arena #151: Burr Gymnasium - Howard vs. Pennsylvania

After spending the afternoon at Towson, it was time to cap off my doubleheader day by heading into Washington, DC for a non-conference matchup at Burr Gymnasium between the host Howard Bison and the visiting Pennsylvania Quakers for Arena #151.  Burr Gymnasium was an interesting little venue, holding around 2,500 people even if there were only a few hundred in attendance for the game on this evening.  The setup with the first row of the stands being a few feet above the sidelines and player benches was one of the more unique layouts I’ve seen in 151 stops thus far, but made for a setup where there likely wouldn’t be a bad seat in the building.  The only complaint I had was the joint was hotter than hot.  Normally I’m freezing in most of these smaller venues because there’s not a lot of people in the building and the A/C is turned up for the players, but here at Howard, it had to be 100 degrees walking into the seating bowl and it was brutal as a fan so I can’t imagine what it was like for the players.  It didn’t seem to affect the teams much though, especially the Quakers, who spent the majority of the night lighting it up from 3.  The Bison kept it reasonably competitive for 30 minutes or so, especially in the middle of the second half as they cut the Penn lead from 18 to 9, but Howard was unable to sustain that run and Penn exerted their will to close the game and take home a sizable win to Philadelphia.

Main entrance to Burr Gymnasium on the campus of Howard University

Inside the extra warm seating bowl of Burr Gymnasium

Opening tip between the Bison and Quakers

Press box reppin' that Bison Pride

One of the many 3-point attempts from the Quakers on this evening