GAME INFORMATION:
DATE: Mar. 1, 2025
TIME: 2:00 PM
EVENTS: Senior Day Ceremony - 1:40 PM | Rally Towel Giveaway | Halftime Dunk Contest
SITE: Orono, ME - Skip Chappelle Court - "The Pit"
2024-25 RECORDS: Maine 17-12, 9-5 AE | Bryant 18-11, 12-2 AE
VIDEO: ESPN+
LISTEN: goblackbears.com
LIVE STATS
TWITTER: @maineMBB
GAME NOTES 

- Last Time Out - 

The University of Maine men's basketball team took down the Wildcats of UNH to sweep the Buffalo Wild Wings Border Battle on the regular season with the 73-66 victory. Kellen Tynes ended with a team-high 16 points on the night. He added in 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. Quion Burns ended one rebound shy of a double-double as he had 13 points and 9 rebounds, along with 4 assists 2 steals and 2 blocks. AJ Lopez finished with 15 points on 50% shooting from both the field and from three-point range. The Black Bears will clinch their first home playoff game since 1995 with their next win or either a UAlbany loss or Binghamton loss on Saturday.

- 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. On Feb. 6, Tynes broke the program record for most steals in a career as he registered his 244th steal in 85 games played, breaking the previous record held by Marty Higgins of 243 in 115 games played. Tynes is the NCAA DI all-time leader in steals for a Canadian born player. Tynes is currently second in the NCAA with 88 steals on the season. He also ranks in the top-20 in the America East in scoring as he is averaging 12.6 PPG, which is the third most on the Black Bears and 19th 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-17 in the America East in scoring. Lopez leads the Black Bears with 14.8 PPG (10th in America East) while Burns averages the second-most points on the team and 17th in the America East at 13.0 per game.

Lopez is averaging 16.4 PPG in conference games, which is the eighth-highest mark in the conference. Lopez is also leading the America East in 3PT% at 46.0%, leading in FT% at 91.1% and is seventh in the conference at 53.0% from the field overall in conference games. Lopez is shooting 91.0% from the FT line on the season, which is the 8th best in the NCAA.

Burns had his best two offensive performances in back-to-back games 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 at UMass Lowell before scoring 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range vs UNH. His 202 total rebounds on the season are the 5th-most in the America East.

- NCAA Leaderboards - 

Maine sits in the top-three in the America East in 14 of the 28 major categories that the NCAA tracks, while also being ranked in the top-100 in all of the NCAA in 12 of the 14 categories. Highlighted by the defense and limiting turnovers, Maine's national and conference rankings sit as follows (National-America East): 3.9 - Turnover Margin (14th-1st), 9.0 - Steals Per Game (22nd-1st), 14.8 - Turnovers Forced Per Game (27th-1st), 66.0 - Fewest Points Allowed Per Game (32nd-2nd), 15.0 - Fewest Fouls Per Game (40th-3rd),  

1.42 - Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (48th-1st), 36.5% - Three-Point% (59th-3rd), 15.3 - Assists Per Game (78th-1st), 10.8 - Fewest Turnovers Per Game (80th-1st), 46.7% - Field Goal% (81st-3rd), 11.9 - Fastbreak Points Per Game (84th-3rd), 74.8% - Free Throw% (84th-2nd), 

5.7 - Scoring Margin (2nd in AE) and 58.6% - Winning% (3rd in AE).

- 45 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 9-5 in America East action and five-games over .500 at an 17-12 record overall. Maine recently had their longest winstreak under Coach Markwood snapped at Vermont as they had won six-straight games prior to a the loss.. The Black Bears will clinched their first winning-regular season record since 2009-10 (19-11) and are one win shy of clinching their first ever home playoff game in America East history.

- History vs Bryant -

This will be the second matchup of the season between these two teams as Bryant picked up the win on Jan. 4, 81-55. AJ Lopez scored 24 points in the contest. Kellen Tynes had 4 steals.

-UMaine-  
 
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