ORONO, Maine – Following a tough overtime loss to Atlantic 10 foe Fordham on Sunday afternoon, the UMaine men's basketball team opens December with a three game home stand, beginning with a game against the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Tuesday night.

The Black Bear-Owls matchup will the start following game one of the doubleheader in UMaine women's basketball game against Maine Maritime at 5:00 p.m., and the Meet The Black Bears event, presented by Domino's. Tip-Off for the men's game is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center.  
LAST TIME OUT: Maine came up just short against Atlantic 10 foe Fordham, falling to the Rams 67-66 in overtime at historic Rose Hill Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon. Aaron Calixte, Andrew Fleming, and Ilker Er combined for 51 of Maine's 66 points in the loss. The Black Bears led for over 28 minutes of the 45-minute contest, with Fordham holding an edge in the lead for almost eight minutes. The game went back-and-forth the entire contest, which featured nine lead changes and nine ties. The Black Bear-Ram matchup featured a tie score for over eight minutes of game time.    
 
THE SERIES:  Maine owns a 4-0 record over UMPI all time, with all of the wins coming in dominating fashion. The Black Bears defeated the Owls 96-45 on Nov. 26 last season at the Cross Insurance Center, with Ilker Er and Andrew Fleming combining for 29 points. The two teams first met on Nov. 17 1997, as Maine downed UMPI, 92-47. In 2008, Maine won 126-50 over UMPI. The Black Bears scored a program-high 133 points in a 133-58 win over the Owls on Dec. 10, 2009. Overall, Maine holds an all-time series score of 447-200, which averages to a score of 112-50 per game in favor of the Black Bears.
 
A LOOK AT UMPI: The University of Maine at Presque Isle Owls enter December with a 3-3 record. UMPI defeated Maine Machias 75-58 in their last game on Nov. 30. Willburn Griffiths led all scorers with 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field. He added six rebounds and an assist in 23 minutes played. A total of four Owls reached double-figures in scoring with Kevin Collins (13 points), Deandre Duncombe (12 points), and Anthony Chacho (10 points) all tallying 10 points or more. Collins is UMPI's leading scorer on the season, averaging 16 points per contest, while Duncombe contributes on average 15 points per game. Griffiths is shooting an excellent 62.5 percent on the season, averaging 10.7 points per game. The Owls average 73.7 points per game, while shooting  42.4 percent on field goals. In Division III, the Owls rank in the top-50 in 3-point field goal attempts (34^th, 159), and total 3-point field goals made (56). Collins ranks 34^th in the country in 3-point field goal attempts, with 47 treys through six games.
 
RECORD WATCH: Calixte has made 19 consecutive free throws, spanning parts of the last three games against Fordham (7-7), Georgetown (4-4) and Quinnipiac (8-9). The redshirt junior is 12 made free throws away from tying Skip Chappelle's record of 32 consecutive free throws made in the 1960-61 season.
 
CAPTIVATING CALIXTE: Over his last five games, Calixte is averaging a team-high 19 points per game, while shooting 29-for- 60 shooting from field. On free throw opportunities, he is shooting an impressive 87 percent in that time frame (27-31). He is tied for the team lead with 15 assists in that span, while averaging 4.4 boards per game.
 
BACK TO FORM: Fleming put together one of his best performances of the season against Fordham, registering season-highs in points (16), field goal percentage (7-12, .583 FG percentage), rebounds (13), minutes (41), while only turning the ball over twice.
 
CELIO THE DISTRIBUTOR:  In his last game against Fordham, junior Celio Araujo had a breakout performance, tallying a season-high eight assists in 35 minutes played. Araujo's previous high came against Texas Tech, when the Brazilian registered three assists against the Red Raiders. At Sheridan College, he ranked in the top-10 junior college players in the country in 2016-17 in assists per game (7.0) and assist/turnover ratio (3.5).
 
UP NEXT:  Maine continues its home stand on Friday, hosting Ivy League opponent Dartmouth. The opening tip is slated for 7:00 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center.
 
-UMaine-