BURLINGTON, Vt. - Maine hits the pavement once more for a three-game stretch on the road to begin the second half of their conference schedule, starting with a trip to America East frontrunner Vermont, followed by trips to Binghamton and UMass-Lowell. Five of Maine's six wins in 2019-20 have come at home, as the Black Bears will look to bolster their 1-11 road record and claw their way back into the America East playoff picture with a big road swing.
Maine at Vermont
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GAME NOTES
Date: Wednesday, February 5
th
Time: 7:00 PM
Site: Patrick Gymnasium, Burlington, Vermont
SERIES HISTORY
Overall.........................................Vermont, 74-70
Streak...................................................UVM, +18
Last 5 meetings.....................................UVM, 5-0
Last Meeting......................1/22/20, UVM, 59-57
Last Win.......................................1/22/13, 71-68
LAST TIME OUT
The University of Maine men's basketball team dropped their third straight contest on Saturday afternoon, as the Hartford Hawks came into Memorial Gymnasium on the Orono campus and gritted out a 55-49 victory over the Black Bears.
After entering halftime with a 25-18 deficit hanging over them, the Black Bears put together a solid rally bid between the 14:40 and 9:41 mark of the second half, running out an 11-2 stretch that tied things up at 33-33. The Hawks stood tall, however, rattling off a 12-4 run of their own over the next 4:42 of game time to regain a ten-point advantage. Maine managed to trim the lead down to six with under thirty seconds to go, but a 4-0 run was too little too late and Hartford left the floor with their sixth conference victory of the season.
Neither team shot the ball well, as Maine put up a 31.0/16.7/64.3 shooting line and Hartford managed a 35.1/15.8/80.0 mark. The two teams combined to go 7-33 from three-point land.
Andrew Fleming managed to make a big impact despite some shooting struggles, pulling down 13 rebounds and recording a pair of blocks and a pair of steals.
Sergio El Darwich returned to the starting lineup and posted a team-high 15 points along with six rebounds.
Stephane Ingo recorded a strong first half with seven points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocks in just under 14 minutes. The redshirt freshman recorded just five minutes of court time in the second half, pulling down a pair of boards to give him an even seven points, seven rebounds on the day.
A LOOK AT THE CATAMOUNTS
The last meeting between these two teams was a thriller, as
Andrew Fleming's fall-away three-point attempt at the buzzer sailed just wide to allow the Catamounts to escape with the 59-57 victory.
The premier player in the conference, reigning America East Player of the Year Anthony Lamb leads Vermont, sitting fifth in the conference in scoring (17.1 ppg), fifth in rebounds per game (7.3), third in blocked shots per game (1.3), and fourth in free throw percentage (80.2%). Lamb earned his ninth career America East Player of the Week award and second of the season this week, after averaging 26.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in two roads wins last week.
Stef Smith is the second option on the Catamount roster, averaging 14.3 points per game on a 45.3/43.3/74.1 shooting line. He's tenth in the conference in scoring and seventh in field goal percentage.
Vermont has had about as successful a season as they expected so far, beginning the season with their first 4-0 start since the 1977-78 season. They fell to Virginia to end their hot start, before bouncing back against Central Connecticut State the next time out. Their only other non-conference common opponent is Dartmouth, who they beat by 77-68 final score on January 2nd. They opened America East play with an upset loss handed down by Stony Brook, but have since rattled off seven straight wins to sit atop the standings.
THEY GROW UP SO FAST
With the construction of their roster, Maine has had to depend on some of their freshest faces to log major minutes. True freshmen Precious Okoh, Ja'Shonte Wright-McLeish, and Peter Stumer have appeared in 21 of 22 games so far, logging an average of over 12-minutes a game as a triumvirate.
Stumer has seen his minutes load increase throughout the season, peaking at Northeastern on December 4th 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, and he's now started five straight games.
Wright-McLeish and Okoh as served as defensive-centric backups to senior Sergio El Darwich, and redshirt freshman Stephane Ingo has increased his court time game-to-game, averaging 14.5 minutes a game off the bench including 34 against UConn on December 1st, and even made his first career start in game number 14 against Columbia on January 2nd.
The combination of Ingo and Stumer has been in the starting five for three straight contests entering the week.
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