AMHERST, Mass. - The University of Maine men's basketball program returns to their rambling ways to end the week, hit the road once again to take on the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts on Friday night at 7:00 PM.
Maine at Massachusetts
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FULL GAME NOTES
Date: Friday, December 20
th
Time: 7:00 PM
Site: Mullins Center,
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SERIES HISTORY
Overall: 17-42
Streak: L, 1
Last 4 meetings: 1-3
First Meeting: 1908-09, L, 25-24
Last Meeting: Dec. 22, 2017, L, 63-74
Last Maine Win: Dec. 8, 2010, 68-56
Most points scored: 101, Dec. 9, 1975, 106-101 L
Most points allowed: 108, Feb. 23, 1974, 108-88 L
Largest Margin of Victory: +18, Feb. 12, 1979, 85-67
MAINE GAME NOTES
HOMECOMING SPOILED
The Bears fell in back-to-back contests in their return to the Cross Insurance Center on after four weeks on the raod, as the Dartmouth Big Green dispatched the Black Bears by a 77-44 final score last Wednesday followed by a 81-61 dispatching handed out by the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Sunday afternoon.
LAST TIME OUT
Maine and Quinnipiac traded buckets after the opening tip, with Maine taking their only lead of the day five minutes in after an Andrew Fleming bucket made it 6-5 Black Bears. Quinnipiac orchestrated a 9-0 run over the next two minutes, however, and extended it all the way to an eventual 18-2 run that gave them a 23-8 advantage with over eight minutes remaining in the first half. Maine rallied momentarily, as they capped the first half with a Nedeljko Prijovic four-point play to enter the halftime break trailing 36-25. Maine carried the momentum to start the second half, opening the half on a 10-2 run to bring themselves within three points. The Bobcats answered with a 18-6 run between the 13:55 and 8:53 mark of the half to build an insurmountable 66-45 21-point lead. Maine was unable to close the gap in any significant way the rest of the half, as Quinnipiac exited the Cross Center with the 81-61 victory. Maine had four players in double-digit scoring, led by Vilgot Larsson and Nedeljko Prijovic with 15 each. Prijovic also had a pair of steals and a pair of blocks, while Larsson led the Bears with seven boards on the day. Sergio El Darwich returned to the lineup for the first time since November 27th, putting up ten points, six rebounds, and four assists in 37 minutes. Andrew Fleming filled the stat sheet with 13 points, four assists, four rebounds, and a pair of steals. Maine put up a 40.4/27.8/76.9 shooting line on the afternoon, but the Bobcats buried Maine with a 15-35 day from three-point land.
GRIT AND GRIND BASKETBALL
Maine's team profile is beginning to emerge here as we near the halfway point of the season, as evidenced by their standing in the conference team statistic rankings. They rank first in the America East and in the nation in assist to field goal percentage, registering an assist on 70.0% of their field goal makes this year. They also rank first in the conference in rebounds allowed (29.7), second in blocks per game (3.5), third in fewest total fouls (176), rebounding margin (+3.5), and assists per game (15.1).
THEY GROW UP SO FAST
With the construction of their roster and a few key injuries to upperclassmen, Maine has had to depend on some of their freshest faces to pick up the slack. Freshman Precious Okoh is one of just four Black bears to appear in all ten games and the only freshman to do so, logging an average of 17.0 minutes a game at the point guard position. Classmate Peter Stumer has seen his minutes load increase with each game, peaking in last Wednesday night's tilt at Northeastern where he dropped in a career-high 12-points on a 4-8 day from three-point land along with four rebounds and a steal in a career-high 28 minutes. Stephane Ingo has also increased his court time game-to-game, averaging 12.3 minutes a game off the bench including 34 against UConn on December 1st.
LIVING UP TO THE HYPE
After being the first Black bear since 2012 to be named Preseason All-Conference in the America East, Andrew Fleming delivered the first chance he got, dominating the opener against Merrimack with 37 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks in Maine's 84-64 victory, playing all 40 minutes end-to-end. The 37 points were just one shy of his career-high, and he did it on a 66.6% mark from the field while going 13-15 from the free-throw line.
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Maine features one of the youngest rosters in the America East this season with seven freshmen on their bench this year. Of those seven, six different nations are represented, as Maine features players from Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Serbia, Turkey, and the United States. Overall, Maine has representatives from ten different countries, with Lebanon, Latvia, Ukraine, and England being represented.
A LOOK AT THE MINUTEMEN
UMass fields a similarly young roster to the Black Bears, with nine newcomers including seven freshman. So far they've rolled to a 5-6 overall record, including wins over UMass Lowell, Northeastern, and Central Connecticut State, but have six straight heading into their contest with Maine.
Rookie T.J. Weeks leads the squad with 14.7 points per game so far this year, as three other Minutemen average double-digit scoring figures. Weeks makes most of his shots from beyond the arc, ranking second in the Atlantic-10 conference in both three-point field goals per game (3.2) and three-point field goal percentage (48.5). Sean East leads the team with 5.0 assists a game and Tre Mitchell leads the rebound effort with 6.3 a game.
Matt McCall leads UMass in his third season at the helm. McCall spent seven seasons at Florida, moving from Student Manager up to Director of Operations before leaving for three seasons at Florida Atlantic as their assistant coach. He returned to his alma mater in Gainesville for four seasons (including a trip to the Final Four in 2013-14) before getting his first head coaching position at Chattanooga where he led the program
For all the latest news and updates regarding Maine Basketball, stay tuned to GoBlackBears.com and the social media handle @BlackBearsMBB on Instagram and Twitter.
