ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears return to Cross Insurance Center after a two-game conference skid losing games to Stony Brook and Hartford over the holiday weekend, and prepare to face rival UNH on Thursday night. The Wildcats come in on a conference loss to Vermont, as their conference record falls to 2-2 vs. Maine's 1-4. The game will continue Maine's winter tradition of "Beach Night", with activities and prizes for all fans.
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SCOUTING MAINE
Maine is coming off a low-scoring game at Hartford, a game that saw less than 100 total points as Hartford held Maine to a season-low 44 points, as they took the victory 54-44.
Vincent Eze lead the way for Maine on offense with 13 points on 5-8 shooting, and 3-6 from the free throw line. He also tallied nine rebounds, two assists and steals, and a block.
Wes Myers finished with 12 points, five rebounds, and an assist.
Myers leads the team in points per game with 16.3, 23.8 in conference play; he ranks fourth in conference in points per game, and third in total points with 326. Myers also ranks in the top 50 nationally for made free throws with 86 (ranked 42nd, second in conference).
Ryan Bernstein is second in the conference in assist/to ratio with 3.0, which ranks him 24th in the nation in that stat. He has 66 assists on the season, averaging 3.3 per game.
Vincent Eze has started the last seven games for Maine and has seen his play time and stats steadily increasing. He is averaging 8.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game in conference play. Maine as a whole has shown great strengths in rebounding this season, as they are third in the conference in offensive rebounds per game with 11.50 and first in conference for total rebounds with 710. Maine looks to long-range offense often, as they lead the conference in three-point attempts this season with 461, which ranks them 39th nationally.
SCOUTING NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire is coming off a loss to Vermont, who is undefeated in conference play so far this season. Vermont held the Wildcats to 59 points in their 71-59 victory. For UNH two players scored over 20 points in the loss, Daniel Dion with 21 and Tanner Leissner with 20. Dion also had four rebounds, three assists, and a steal, while Leissner had three rebounds, two assists and steals, and a block playing all 40 minutes of the game. UNH had no bench points in the game.
Tanner Leissner leads all Wildcat scorers this year with 15.5 points per game, and second in conference with rebounds per game at 7.6, sitting behind only Iba Camara, who leads the conference with 8.1 rebounds per game. He currently has 8.4 points per game for the Wildcats. Jaleen Smith has 14.8 points per game for UNH, and is second in conference in assists per game with 4.3 Daniel Dion, who averages 13.6 points per game, leads the conference with made three-pointers per game with 3.0, and is ranked 45th nationally for three-point FG% with 41.5.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Maine and UNH carry a multi-sport historic rivalry, but in basketball Maine holds the advantage with a 118-71 series lead, although UNH has taken the last four matchups between the two teams. They last met last season on February 8th, 2016 at Lundholm Gymnasium, where UNH took an 88-75 victory over Maine.
Kevin Little and
Shaun Lawton lead Maine scorers with 23 and 19 points respectively, with Lawton also grabbing seven rebounds. For UNH, Tanner Leissner and Ronnel Jordan scored over 20 points each, 26 for Leissner with nine rebounds and a steal, and Jordan 11 rebounds and three assists.
Maine's last victory against the Wildcats on the hardwood came three seasons ago on March 2nd, 2014 in the Cross Insurance Center, where Maine took downt the Wildcats 73-69. Maine was led by
Troy Reid-Knight and
Till Gloger who each tallied 15 points, with a total of five Black Bears reaching double-figure scoring (
Marko Pirovic, 13;
Shaun Lawton, 12; Xavier Pollard, 10). Jordon Bronner had 24 points for the Wildcats.
BEACH NIGHT
The Black Bears will be hosting Beach Night, with free sunglasses, and a best-dressed contest with gift card rewards from Buffalo Wild Wings. As always the game is free to all UMaine Students when they present their MaineCard, with a fan bus leaving Hauck Circle on campus at 6:30pm. For non-students, purchase tickets at
Ticketmaster.com or the Cross Center box office.
-UMaine-
