ORONO, Maine - The Black Bears get ready to finish out the regular season with a game at Binghamton Saturday, before taking on Vermont in the first round of the America East tournament next Wednesday. The Black Bears, the Stony Brook Seawolves, and the Vermont Catamounts are so far the only teams who know their seeding in the tournament.
 

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GAME NOTES

Scouting Maine
The Black Bears are coming into this game off a week's rest, after facing Albany on Senior Day at the Cross Insurance Center, a game which got out of hand quickly as Albany outscored Maine 39-14 in the first half, with Maine playing much better in the second half outscoring the Great Danes 42-35. Vincent Eze tallied his second career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, while Austin Howard had a team-high 12 points in the contest.

Andrew Fleming averages 10.2 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game for Maine; he was a three-time America East Rookie-of-the-Week before his mid-season injury, but he's picked up right where he left off in his return. Austin Howard after his 12-point game against Albany now averages 7.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. It was his eighth game this season tallying double digits. 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 17 games for Maine, and is averaging 8.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in conference play (5.9 points, 4.8 rebounds overall).


Scouting Binghamton
The Bearcats are riding a similar losing streak to the Black Bears, as they are so far winless in the month of February. Their most recent game at Hartford was a 76-69 loss for the Bearcats. The Bearcats had three players score in double figures; Davis Everson led the team with 19 points, while Timmy Rose and Bobby Ahearn had 13 points each, with Rose dishing four assists.

Willie Rodriguez leads the Bearcats in points per game this season with 10.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Thomas Bruce leads the team with 5.0 rebounds per game, also 7.0 points per game. Other key contributors in the scoring column for Binghamton are Bobby Ahearn with 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds per game, and Timmy Rose with 7.4 points per game.


All-time series
The Bearcats and Black Bears have played a total of 30 games against each other, with Binghamton holding the slight all-time advantage, 18-17; 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.

The two teams have met earlier this season on January 29th, with the Bearcats taking the matchup in Bangor, 65-54. The only Maine scorer in double figures was Wes Myers with 22 points, while Timmy Rose went off for 20 points on 6-8 shooting. Willie Rodriguez also had 15 points.

-UMaine-