ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears finish up a three-game February road trip with a trip to Durham to face rival UNH, after falling in a one-point heartbreaker to Stony Brook, bringing their conference record to 2-11. The Wildcats are coming off a win against Binghamton, snapping their four-game conference losing streak to bring their record to 6-6 in league play.
Â
Scouting Maine
The Black Bears fell to the Stony Brook Seawolves on Sunday, 67-66 with the final six points coming off of free-throws for both teams.
Wes Myers led Maine scorers tallying his first double-double as a Black Bear, 22 points and 10 assists, while
Andrew Fleming finished with 17 points and seven assists.
Myers leads the team in points per game with 16.9, 20.4 in conference play; he ranks fourth in conference in points per game.
Andrew Fleming follows close behind in the scoring column with 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Ryan Bernstein is ranked 34th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio, with a 2.71; he ranks second in the conference in the stat and averages 3.0 assists per game.
Vincent Eze has taken well to the starter role, taking over as a starter with several teammates out with injury last month; he's now started the last 15 games for Maine, and is averaging 7.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in conference play (5.5 points, 4.6 rebounds overall).
Scouting New Hampshire
The Wildcats are recently coming off a losing-streak-snapping win against the Binghamton Bearcats 63-55 on Sunday; Tanner Lessiner led all scorers with 27 points, along with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Jaleen Smith had 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Iba Camara was one point off a double double with nine points and 13 assists.
Tanner Leissner leads the team with 16.7 points per game, and also averages 7.3 rebounds per game; he is third in the conference in offensive rebounds per game with 2.38. Jaleen Smith averages 15.3 points per game and is second in conference in FG% with 47.0. Iba Camara averages 9.6 points, a team-high 9.2 rebounds, and leads the conference in defensive rebounds per game with 7.0. He also has the most double-doubles in the conference with 7.
All-time series
Maine and UNH carry a multi-sport historic rivalry, but in basketball Maine holds the advantage with a 118-72 series lead, although UNH has taken the last five matchups between the two teams.
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.
The two teams met earlier this season at Cross Insurance Center where UNH took the victory 74-64; Iba Camara led the Wildcats with a 21 point, 11 rebound performance, while also tallying two blocks. Three other Wildcats scored in double figures: Tanner Leissner (17 points, seven rebounds), Jaleen Smith (16 points, four rebounds, four assists) and Daniel Dion (15 points, four rebounds four assists).
Wes Myers led all scorers with 25 points, while
Vincent Eze and
Jaquan McKennon chipped in 13 and 10 points respectively.
Â
