Orono, ME - The University of Maine men's basketball program wraps up their non-conference schedule on Sunday afternoon as they return to Orono to host Boston University.

- Last Time Out - 

The University of Maine men's basketball team came up just short in their second-half comeback effort at Stony Brook on Saturday, Dec. 21. Maine jumped out to an early lead as they took a five-point advantage into the under-12 media timeout at 18-13 before Stony Brook responded with an extended 18-5 run to take a 31-23 lead into the last media timeout of the first half. Maine got the score back to within four points heading into halftime as they trailed 34-30. Christopher Mantis led the way for the Black Bears with 8 points in the opening half on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from the field. Quion Burns had 5 points and 5 rebounds while Jaden Clayton had 6 points and 3 assists.Kellen Tynes had 3 steals and 2 blocks on the defensive end of the floor. Maine netted back-to-back buckets within 5 seconds of each other to get it back to within 6 at 72-66 with 1:08 remaining in the second half after a three-pointer by Mantis and a steal and layup by Clayton. Maine continued to up the pressure on defense as they got it to within two points at 74-72, but the Black Bears came up just short in their comeback as Stony Brook picked up the win. Tynes and Clayton each finished with 15 points and 4 assists for Maine. Tynes had 4 steals and 2 blocks while Clayton had 3 steals of his own. AJ Lopez finished with 13 points while Mantis finished with 11 off the bench. Burns finished with a team-high 7 rebounds.

- Two-Time Defensive Player of the Year - 

Kellen Tynes is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in the America East, an award he was won in back-to-back seasons at the University of Maine. He is the only player in program history to win the award, which in turn has led to him being named a Left Driesell Award Finalist in back-to-back seasons. He led all of the NCAA in steals in 2022-23 with 98. He has 168 steals across his first two seasons with Maine.

To go along with his two DPOY Awards, Tynes has been the second leading scorer for the Black Bears across his two seasons at Maine. He averaged 14.3 PPG in 2022-23 and 12.6 PPG last season, resulting in back-to-back America East All-Conference Third Team selections. Tynes recently scored his 1000th career point as part of a 12-point outing against Holy Cross.

Tynes is currently second in the NCAA with 43 steals on the season. His efforts have the Black Bears ranked as the 79th defense (67.1 points allowed per game) in the country and 43rd (15.3) in turnovers forced per game.

-Wings Making Impacts-

Quion Burns and AJ Lopez and making the most of their first season as starters for the Black Bears as they are both ranked in the Top-15 in the America East in scoring. Lopez leads the Black Bears with 13.9 PPG while Burns averages the second-most points with 12.7 PPG.

Burns has scored in double-digits in eight of his last ten games for the Black Bears, including a season-high 21 in a comeback victory over Navy. Lopez has scored in double-digits in 11 of 14 games on the season for Maine and scored a career-high 24 against Fordham.

-Bench Production Ramping Up-

The Black Bears have seen a steady climb in their bench production over their past few games, lead in a major way by Killian Gribben and Christopher Mantis.

The two are combining for 14.6 PPG, but both have registered their season-highs in scoring in the last nine games with 

Mantis scoring 17 against Holy Cross on Nov. 24 and 15 twice. Meanwhile, Gribben scored 12 against Elon on Nov. 29 and 10 against Canisius last time out, all while leading the Black Bears in FG%. Over those games, both are averaging over 16 minutes per game.

- Fourth in America East Preseason Poll -

Maine was selected fourth in the America East preseason poll following a 7-9 Conference record last season, which put them in a three-way tie for fourth place. Maine ultimately was the sixth seed in the conference tournament due to tiebreakers.

The fourth place in the preseason poll for the Black Bears is their highest since the 2010-11 season. Maine is looking to host their first ever playoff game since the America East went to a higher-seed hosting format in 2015 and their first postseason victory since the 2004 Black Bears.

- 36 and Counting -

Since taking over at the helm of the Black Bears in the summer of 2022, Chris Markwood has developed the Black Bears into a Top-60 defensive program, which is leading to more victories per season than Maine has seen in over a decade. His 28 wins across his opening two season are the most wins in a two-year span since the 2009-11 Black Bears that won 34 games.

-UMaine-