- Last Time Out - 

The University of Maine men's basketball team scored the final five points in the last 30 seconds to pick up the overtime victory over UMass Lowell on Thursday night, 86-85. The win was their fifth-straight victory, the longest conference winning streak under Coach Markwood and their first victory at UMass Lowell since the 2018-19 season. Quion Burns finished with a career-high and game-high 28 points while AJ Lopez also set a career-high in scoring as he had 27 points. Jaden Clayton finished with 7 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals while Kellen Tynes scored 16 points and had a pair of steals.

- Two-Time Defensive Player of the Year... and More - 

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 70 steals on the season. He also ranks in the top-20 in the America East in scoring as he is averaging 12.9 PPG, which ranks second on the Black Bears and 18th in the America East.

- 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-20 in the America East in scoring. Lopez leads the Black Bears with 15.7 PPG (4th in America East) while Burns averages the third-most points with 12.3 PPG.

Lopez is averaging 21.7 PPG in six conference games, which is the second-highest mark in the conference. Lopez is also leading the America East in 3PT% at 60.6% and is third in the conference at 60.5% from the field overall.

Burns is coming off his best offensive performance as a Black Bear as he scored a career-high 28 points on 9-for-16 shooting from the field and 4-for-5 from behind-the-arc. He added on 8 rebounds to his already team-leading total for the season, which now sits at 133, the 7th-most in the America East.

- NCAA Leaderboards - 

Maine sits in the top-three in the America East in 13 of the 28 major categories that the NCAA tracks, while also being ranked in the top-100 in all of the NCAA in 11 of the 13 categories. Highlighted by the defense and limiting turnovers, Maine's national and conference rankings sit as follows (National-America East): 4.6 - Turnover Margin (13th-1st), 9.5 - Steals Per Game (21st-1st), 15.6 - Turnovers Forced Per Game (21st-1st), 76.6% - Free Throw% (37th-2nd), 15.3 - Fewest Fouls Per Game (52nd-3rd), 67.0 - Fewest Points Allowed Per Game (58th-2nd), 1.35 - Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (76th-1st), 46.9% - Field Goal% (81st-3rd), 11.0 - Fewest Turnovers Per Game (85th-2nd), 12.1 - Fast Break Points Per Game (94th-3rd), and 35.4% - Three-Point% (98th).

- 41 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. He has the Black Bears off to their best conference start in over 15 years as they sit at 5-1 in America East action and five-games over .500 at an 13-8 record overall. Maine is currently on their longest winstreak since the 2010-11 season as they have won five-straight games, four of which by double-digits.

- History vs New Hampshire -

One of the oldest rivalries in all of college sports, these two will square off for the 206th time in the historic rivalry. Maine holds the all-time lead at 123-82. The Wildcats have gotten the better of the Black Bears in recent years as UNH has taken the last five games straight and 8 of the last 10. Last season, UNH won both games by a combined 8 points as they took the first game, 79-74 and the second game, 60-57. Kellen Tynes and Jaden Clayton both averaged 12.5 PPG against UNH last season.