Orono, ME - The University of Maine men's basketball program continues their three-game home stand on Saturday afternoon as they host UMBC.

GAME INFORMATION:
DATE: Feb. 8, 2025
TIME: 2:00 PM
SITE: Orono, ME - Skip Chappelle Court - "The Pit"
2024-25 RECORDS: Maine 15-9, 7-2 AE | UMBC 11-13, 3-6 AE
Promotions: Black Bears Reading Day #2
VIDEO: ESPN+
LISTEN: goblackbears.com
LIVE STATS
TICKETS
TWITTER: @maineMBB
GAME NOTES

- Last Time Out - 

The University of Maine men's basketball team took down NJIT on Thursday night to move to 7-2 in America East action with the 78-74 victory. AJ Lopez finished with a game-high 23 points as he knocked down a career-high 11 free throws on 12 attempts. Kellen Tynes finished with 16 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. At the 17:39 mark in the first half, 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. Quion Burns finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks while Keelan Steele recorded 11 points and a block.

- 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 currently second in the NCAA with 78 steals on the season. He also ranks in the top-20 in the America East in scoring as he is averaging 12.8 PPG, which is tied for second on the Black Bears and is 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-18 in the America East in scoring. Lopez leads the Black Bears with 15.3 PPG (8th in America East) while Burns averages the second-most points on the team and 18th in the America East at 12.8 per game.

Lopez is averaging 18.6 PPG in nine conference games, which is the third-highest mark in the conference. Lopez is also leading the America East in 3PT% at 50.0%, leading in FT% at 87.9% and is sixth in the conference at 56.9% from the field overall in conference games.

Burns recently 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 and UMass Lowell before scoring 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range. His 159 total rebounds on the season is tied for the 6th-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 9 of the 13 categories. Highlighted by the defense and limiting turnovers, Maine's national and conference rankings sit as follows (National-America East): 4.5 - Turnover Margin (12th-1st), 9.3 - Steals Per Game (23rd-1st), 15.1 - Turnovers Forced Per Game (27th-1st), 65.9 - Fewest Points Allowed Per Game (42nd-2nd), 15.2 - Fewest Fouls Per Game (44th-3rd), 75.4% - Free Throw% (56th-2nd), 1.39 - Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (61st-1st),  10.7 - Fewest Turnovers Per Game (64th-1st), 46.8% - Field Goal% (75th-3rd), 11.6 - Fast Break Points Per Game (3rd in AE), 62.5% - Winning% (1st in AE), 6.3 - Scoring Margin (3rd in AE) and 42.3% - Defensive Field Goal% (2nd in AE).

- 43 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 7-2 in America East action and six-games over .500 at an 15-9 record overall. Maine just had their longest winstreak under Coach Markwood snapped at Vermont as they had won six-straight games prior to the loss and bounced back against NJIT.

- History vs UMBC -

This will be the second matchup of the 2024-25 season for these two as the Black Bears took the first game of the season in a 25-point victory at UMBC, 87-62. AJ Lopez scored a game-high 24 points while Quion Burns (19), Kellen Tynes (11), Chris Mantis (11) and Keelan Steele (10) all scored in double-digits in the victory. In the all-time series, UMBC holds the lead at 26-16 as Saturday will be the 43rd meeting all-time.

-UMaine-

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