Orono, ME - The University of Maine men's basketball team wraps up their two-game road trip to New York with a stop at UAlbany on Saturday.

GAME INFORMATION:
DATE: Saturday, Mar. 2
TIME: 4:00 P.M.
SITE: Albany, NY
2023/24 RECORDS: Maine 13-16, 5-9 - UAlbany 14-16, 5-9
VIDEO: ESPN +
LISTEN: goblackbears.com
LIVE STATS
TWITTER: @maineMBB
GAME NOTES

Last Time Out: Binghamton was able to outlast the Black Bears in overtime as they came away with the victory, 76-74.

Peter Filipovity finished with a team-high 17 points in the contest and a career-high 14 rebounds.

Kellen Tynes finished with 16 points while Quion Burns had 13 off the bench for Maine.

Jaden Clayton ended with 12 points, two assists and two steals. Adam Cisse finished with four blocks on the defensive end for the Black Bears.

Black Bear Rankings: Maine is allowing the 47th fewest points per game in the NCAA at 66.9 per game, which ranks second in the America East.

Maine ranks in the Top-100 national in a number of key categories and in the top-three in the America East, including: Steals per game (37th - Second in America East), turnover margin (81st - First in America East),  three-point % defense (41st), fewest turnovers per game (Third in America East),  and turnovers forced per game (80th - First in America East).

Spotlights: Peter Filipovity: Filipovity has emerged as one of the most improved players in all of the America East. In year two of being a part of Markwood's system, Filipovity has seen his scoring average triple from his first season at Maine (4.8 - 13.7) and is up nearly four points per game from last seasons average (9.2 - 13.7) all while becoming a more efficient scorer of the basketball (47% - 55%).

To go along with the spike in scoring, he has seen a large increase in his rebounding totals (2.6 - 5.7 - 7.7) across his three seasons at Maine and he has become a much more reliable defender for a strong defensive minded Black Bear squad. His 7.7 rebounds per game this season are the fourth-most in the America East. He recently had back-to-back career-best days against America East opponents as he had a conference career-high 20 points and 13 rebounds against NJIT, before topping his tying his career-high with 23 against UAlbany for his second-straight double-double. He recently had another monster double-double as he had 21 points and 10 rebounds against Bryant and another 20-point outing against New Hampshire. He recorded a double-double in the victory over UMBC and is coming off of a 21/7 outing against NJIT. He pulled in a career-high 14 rebounds against Binghamton.

Kellen Tynes: Tynes continues to be one of the most consistent and dominate defenders in all of college basketball. He is averaging 2.32 steals per game, which is the most per game in the America East and ranks him 12th nationally. He has 65 total steals on the season, which are the most in the America East and has him ranked 12th in the nation.

Despite his scoring average being down slightly from a season ago (14.3 - 12.9), Maine played a much stronger non-conference schedule and Tynes has continued to be one of the most consistent players on the Black Bears as he has scored in double-figures in 22 of 28 games on the season, including three games of 20 or more points (season-high 26 against Holy Cross).

One season ago, Tynes became the first Black Bear in program history to be named a Conference Defensive Player of the Year, a National Semifinalist for Defensive Player of the Year and his numbers were above anyone else in the entire NCAA. Tynes led the country with 98 steals (excluding the NCAA Tournament) and his average of 3.27 steals per game also led the country and were the most in the NCAA in three years.

Jaden Clayton: Clayton is one of the best facilitators of the basketball in the America East and has emerged over the past 10 games as one of the most consistent scorers for the Black Bears. He ranks sixth in total assists (115 - 126th in NCAA), sixth in assists per game (4.0- 151th in NCAA) and does so with the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.55) in the America East. In a recent outing against Bryant, he had a career-high 24 points (previous best was 16) to go along with six assists, five rebounds and a steal on 8-for-11 shooting from the field. Over his past ten contests, Clayton is averaging 11.2 points per game on 50% shooting from the field.

Impact at the Forward Position: The Black Bears have run out a trio of small forwards/power forwards this season that have been a big part of the teams early season success. The transfer additions of AJ Lopez and Quion Burns, paired with fifth-year forward, Ja'Shonté Wright-McLeish, has combined to score 21.5 points per game for the Black Bears. They have hit a combined 88 three-pointers, shooting 33.6% from behind the arc as a group. The trio has been just as effective on the defensive end of the floor as they have on the offensive side. They have collected 69 steals (led by Wright-McLeish's 39) and have 19 blocks as a group.

One-Two Punch at Center: Kristians Feierbergs and Adam Cisse play two different styles of basketball, but both have made big impacts for the Black Bears.

Feierbergs began the season shooting 2-for-17 (11.7%) from three-point range, but since his early season struggles, his numbers have rose to shooting 31.0% from behind the arc and he has six of his top-seven scoring performances on the season. He recently hit four of five three-pointers against UAlbany and another big game of three-made three-pointers against UMBC.

Meanwhile, Cisse has made a much greater impact on the defensive end of the floor. He has averaged 1.7 blocks per game in his 17 starts and 1.3 blocks per game overall. He recently had a career-best day on the defensive end of the floor as he had five blocks against Binghamton.

Program History against UAlbany: This will be the 46th meeting all-time between these two programs. Maine took the first matchup of the season, 81-73, but trails all-time 27-18 in the series.

-UMaine-