ORONO, Maine – The UMaine men's basketball team continues its season-long home stand on Friday night, when Maine takes on Ivy League foe Dartmouth at the Cross Insurance Center. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. in Bangor, and can be watched live on ESPN 3 with Bryan Stackpole and Nick Pelotte on the call.
LAST TIME OUT: The Maine Black Bears' offense hit on on all cylinders from the opening tip, using a 23-5 run early to down Maine Presque Isle 75-55, on Tuesday night at the Cross Insurance Center. The Black Bears were led offensively by
Aaron Calixte (15 points), Vernon Lowndes Jr. (14 points) and
Ilker Er (10 points), who all reached double-figures in scoring in the win.
THE SERIES: First meeting on January 8 1975, Maine and Dartmouth will meet up for the 21
st time on Friday, with the Black Bears and Big Green each winning 10 games. The Big Green hold a 1393-1350 advantage in the all time score, as half of the 20 meetings have been decided by six points or less. Last season, Maine came from behind to defeat Dartmouth 73-68, which snapped Dartmouth's four-game winning streak against the Black Bears.
A LOOK AT DARTMOUTH: The Big Green are 2-4 on the season heading into Friday night's game against Maine, and look to end a two game losing skid after falling to Canisius 73-60 on Dec. 2, and dropping a 79-63 game matchup Sacred Heart on Dec. 5. Dartmouth is 0-3 on the road on the season as they enter game three of their current five game road trip. With five scorers averaging over double-figures in scoring, Dartmouth boasts a very balanced lineup. Brendan Barry and Chris Knight are both averaging 12.8 points per game to lead the Big Green, while Miles Wright follows with 12.5 points a contest. Guilien Smith and Taylor Johnson average 10.3 points and 10.0, respectively. The offense is shooting 45.6 percent from the field, while dropping 33 percent of its 3-point opportunities. One of the Big Green's biggest strengths is that they rarely give away the ball, ranking eighth in the country in fewest turnovers with 73 through six games.
D-FENCE: The Black Bear defense has performed well among America East foes in several categories, ranking best in conference in 3-point field goal percentage defense (31.1), along with ranking second in the conference in defensive rebounds per game (27.89) and field goal percentage defense (42.4).
BLACK BEARS VS. THE IVY LEAGUE: All-time, the Maine Black Bears sport a 23-28 record against the Ivy League. Other than Dartmouth, Maine has played Brown the most (17 times), with a 7-9 mark against the Bears. The Black Bears are 2-6 against Harvard, 1-2 against Columbia, 2-0 against Princeton 1-1 against Yale, and are 1-0 against Cornell. Maine has never faced Penn in 97 seasons of playing basketball.
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.
UP NEXT: The Black Bears close out the home stand and non-conference home schedule with a meeting against the University of Maine at Machias on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m
