ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears continue conference play on a four-game skid after losses to Albany, New Hampshire, and Hartford last week, as they prepare on a long week to face the Binghamton Bearcats, who come in on a conference win, bouncing back to defeat Stony Brook and Hartford.
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SCOUTING MAINE
Maine is coming off a tough loss at Albany where the Great Danes took down Maine 81-63 after a late scoring run finally put the game out of reach as Maine kept battling back from large deficits all game.
Wes Myers led all Maine scorers with 18 points, six rebounds, two steals, and an assist and block.
Myers leads the team in points per game with 16.8, 23.1 in conference play; he ranks fourth in conference in points per game. Myers also ranks in the top 50 nationally for made free throws with 95 (ranked 49th, second in conference).
Andrew Fleming follows close behind in the scoring column with 9.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game; he's fourth in conference in rebounds per game.
Ryan Bernstein is has re-taken the lead in the conference assist/TO ratio category with 3.04, which ranks him 14th in the nation in that stat. He has 70 assists on the season, averaging 3.2 per game.
Vincent Eze has started the last nine games for Maine and has seen his play time and stats steadily increasing. He is averaging 9.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in conference play.
SCOUTING BINGHAMTON
The Bearcats are coming off a bounce-back win against Hartford, increasing their conference win-streak to two games; in the game against Hartford on Wednesday, Binghamton had three players scoring in double figures in their 76-55 win, Marlon Beck II had 15, with two assists and a steal, Yosef Yacob had 13 with two rebounds, and Bobby Ahearn had 12 points with three rebounds, two assists.
Binghamton is led this season by J.C. Show in the scoring column, who averages 13.3 points per game. Willie Rodriguez follows close behind with 12.5 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game. He leads the team in points per game in conference play with 13.1 points per game. Thomas Bruce leads the team in rebounds per game with 5.6 rebounds per game, he has 7.1 points per game. For the Bearcats, Timmy Rose is ranked third in conference in assist to turnover ratio with a 2.39. He averages 4.1 assists per game.
ALL-TIME SERIES
This game will be the tie-breaker in the all-time series between Maine and Binghamton, as both teams have won 16 games each in the series; Binghamton holds the recent advantage as the teams split the series last season, Maine winning in January of last season, 74-63, and Binghamton answering back in February winning 78-66.
In game one last season, Maine bounced back from a halftime deficit to outscore the Bearcats 42-27 in the second half, led by
Kevin Little and
Issac Vann with 22 and 19 points each. Game two in February down in Binghamton saw Binghamton's Willie Rodriguez tallied 24 points on the Black Bears as the Bearcats took a first half lead and never looked back.
Issac Vann had 26 points for the Black Bears.
