ORONO, Maine – Following a closely fought loss to Dartmouth on Friday night, the UMaine men's basketball team closes its three-game home stand against Maine Machias on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m., with the game being broadcasted live on ESPN 3. Sunday's game also marks Star Wars Day at the Cross Insurance Center.
LAST TIME OUT: Trailing by as much as 13 points in the second half, the Maine Black Bears fought back to take a late lead, but ultimately fell to Dartmouth 73-66 at the Cross Insurance Center on Friday night. Three Black Bears reached double figures in scoring, with Vernon Lowndes Jr. and
Aaron Calixte each recording 13 points, while
Andrew Fleming registered 10 points against the Big Green.
THE SERIES: The Black Bears and Clippers will meet for the fourth time on Sunday, with UMaine earning wins of 80-56 on Jan. 3 2006, 95-54 on Nov. 18 2010, and a 113-49 rout of Maine Machias in their last meeting on Nov. 14 2011 in the 2011-12 season opener. Maine holds a series score 288-159, which features an average score of 96-53. In 2011 edition of the series, Justin Edwards scored 24 points and brought down nine rebounds to lead five Black Bears in double-figures in scoring at Memorial Gym.
VERSATILE VERNON: Since his 20-point breakout performance against Quinnipiac on Nov. 26, Vernon Lowndes Jr. has ranked second on the team in scoring, averaging 12 points per contest. The junior-transfer has made 56 percent (22-39) of his shots from the field in that span, while draining 46 percent (7-of-15) from 3-point range. While he has been successful shooting the ball, Lowndes Jr. leads the team during the last five games in rebounding (7.0 per game), steals (10 total) and is tied for best on the team in blocks (3). The Charleston, South Carolina native has cracked the starting lineup the last three games, after averaging just five minutes of playing time during the first five games of the season.
RECORD WATCH: With five free throws against Dartmouth,
Aaron Calixte has now made 24 consecutive free throw attempts, spanning parts of the last five games (5-for-5 against Dartmouth 0-for-0, UMPI 0-for-0, Fordham 7-for-7, Georgetown 4-for-4, and Quinnipiac 8-for-9) Calixte needs just eight more free throws to break Skip Chappelle's school record of 32 straight made in the 1960-61 season. On the season, Calixte has hit 90.7 percent of his free throw attempts (39-43), which ranks second-best in the America East in and 50
th nationally. He also ranks third in the conference in free throws made (39), and fifth (43) in in free throw attempts.
D-FENCE: Despite playing teams such as Boston College, Texas Tech, and Georgetown (combined 21-4 record) in its first 10 games, Maine ranks third amongst conference foes in field goal percentage defense (.432) and second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.325).
THIEVERY: Dartmouth entered Friday's game ranked fourth in the country in fewest turnovers in the nation, as Maine forced 20 turnovers, tying a season-high of 12 steals against the Big Green. The Black Bears capitalized, with 24 points coming directly off turnovers
. Seven of the 10 Black Bears that entered the game recorded a steal, led my Calixte's three.
COMEBACK BEARS: The Black Bears came back from a 13-point deficit early in the second half on Friday night, going on a 25-10 run over next seven minutes to retake a 52-50 lead over Dartmouth. The run included all seven of
Dusan Majstorovic's points, six from Lowndes Jr., four from Fleming and
Dennis Ashley, along with three points from
Ilija Stojiljkovic. Maine
WHITE OUT: 12 seconds into his first game action since the season-opener against Boston College on Nov. 10, Isaiah White drained his first 3-point bucket as a Black Bear to give Maine a five-point lead with 6:30 left against Dartmouth. He's been recovering from a lower leg injury, as he played in six minutes against the Big Green.
UP NEXT: The Black Bears are off from game action until next Sunday, when Maine battles its second of three Atlantic-10 opponents this season in Saint Joseph's on Dec. 17. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m. at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia.
-UMaine-
