ORONO, Maine – Before heading to Vermont for the America East Playoffs, the University of Maine men's basketball team will have one final regular season contest, heading to rival New Hampshire for a rare Tuesday night America East matchup. The Border Battle clash is set for 7:00 p.m. at Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, N.H.
    

Maine Black Bears (5-25, 3-12 AE) at New Hampshire Wildcats (4-24, 2-13)
Date & Time	Tuesday, March 3 | 7:00 p.m.
Venue	Lundholm Gymnasium
Watch	ESPN+
Listen	102.9 WCYR FM | GoBlackBears.com
Live Stats	New Hampshire Live Stats Portal
Game Notes	Maine (PDF)
Twitter	@BlackBearsMBB | #BlackBearNation | #AEHoops

LAST TIME OUT: Vincent Eze lead a group of four seniors with a career-high 22 points, but Binghamton recorded 19 3-pointers on 25 field goals total to earn an 83-60 win on Maine's senior day at the Cross Insurance Center on Saturday afternoon. Eze added 11 rebounds for his third career double-double He also tallied a career-high four steals. Classmates Dennis Ashley (11 pts.), Ilija Stojiljkovic (9 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) and Celio Araujo (4 points) combined to score 46 points in the contest on senior day. Isaiah White neared a double-double with eight points and a season-high nine rebounds.
 
LAST TIME vs. WILDCATS:  A career-high 23 points from Vilgot Larsson, along with 18 points from Sergio El Darwich led the Maine Black Bears past rival New Hampshire by a score of 62-53 on February 3 at the Cross Insurance Center. The win was Maine's second-consecutive victory in conference play, after taking down UMass Lowell 78-59 on Jan. 30. Larsson went 8-for-13 from the field including 4-of-7 from 3-point land, establishing a new career-high of 17 points by the time the halftime horn sounded. He added six points in the second half, and grabbed six boards in total. His previous career-high of 15 points came against North Texas earlier this season on Nov. 20. El Darwich recorded 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor to. Maine natives Andrew Fleming and Terion Moss led the Black Bears (5-18, 3-5 AE) with a game-highs in rebounds (11) and assists (5), respectively.
 
#AEPLAYOFFS BERTH CLINCHED: With UMBC's victory over New Hampshire, Maine clinched the eighth seed in the upcoming America East Playoffs. Even if UNH were to defeat the Black Bears on Tuesday to even the conference records at 3-13, Maine would hold the tiebreaker with an extra road win. Maine will head to first seed Vermont on Saturday for the quarterfinal round.
 
SCOUTING MAINE: The Black Bears look to pull off a season-sweep over New Hampshire for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Since losing Andrew Fleming due to injury on Feb. 23, Eze is leading the team with 18.5 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per contest. Fellow redshirt-junior Dennis Ashley has reached double-figures in scoring in four of his last five games, pouring in 11 against the Bearcats in Maine's last game.  
 
SCOUTING UNH: The Wildcats enter Tuesday's matchup playing some of their best basketball of the season, coming off a 62-58 road victory at UAlbany on Feb. 27 and nearly knocking off UMBC in Catonsville, falling to the Retrievers by a score of 56-53 last Saturday. The Wildcats led the defending America East champions by a 50-33 mark with 10 minutes left in the second half, but UMBC stormed back to take a 55-53 with a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining. Jordan Reed leads with Wildcats with 10.3 points per game, while Nick Guadarrama (5.4) and Jayden Martinez (5.2) both average more than five rebounds per game.
 
UP NEXT: Since Maine has already clinched the eight seed in the upcoming America East playoffs, the Black Bears will head to No. 1 Vermont on Saturday, March 9. The opening tip at Patrick Gymnasium is set for 7:00 p.m. in Burlington.
 
-UMaine-