Men’s basketball
MAINE vs. VERMONT
Time, site: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Patrick Gymnasium, Burlington, Vermont
Records: UMaine 5-18 (3-5 America East), Vermont 17-5 (7-1)
Series, last meeting: Vermont leads 71-70, Vermont 73-49 on 1/9/2019
Key players, UMaine: 6-7 F Andrew Fleming (13.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists per game), 6-5 G Isaiah White (13.7 ppg), 6-4 G Sergio El Darwich (11.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg), 6-8 F Vilgot Larsson (8.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg); Vermont: 6-6 F Anthony Lamb (21.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 2.3 blocks), 6-1 G Stef Smith (12.7 ppg), 6-3 G Ernie Duncan (14.4 ppg, .411 3-pt. FG percentage), 6-5 G Robin Duncan (5.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 2.9 apg)
Game notes: Vermont sits in first place in America East, one game ahead of Stony Brook and Maryland, Baltimore County, both 6-2. UMaine shares sixth place with Albany, a team the Bears defeated 66-64 Jan. 12. Vermont extended its winning streak against UMaine to 15 with its Jan. 9 victory in Bangor. Fleming is the reigning America East player of the week, largely because of his 38-point, 18-of-20 shooting outburst in UMaine’s 78-59 win at UMass Lowell last Wednesday. Fleming tied an AE record for field goals in a game, and he went on to average 21.5 points and 9.5 rebounds while shooting 61.3 percent in victories over UML and New Hampshire. Fleming is UMaine’s first AE player of the week since Aaron Calixte shared the honor with Vermont’s Ernie Duncan last winter and the school’s first outright winner of the award since Xavier Pollard on Feb. 3, 2014. UMaine hosts UMBC at 1 p.m. Sunday. The Retrievers rallied from a 31-19 halftime deficit to defeat the Black Bears 61-52 Jan. 5.
Women’s basketball
MAINE vs. VERMONT
Time, site: Wednesday, 7 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor, Maine
Records: UMaine 15-7 (8-1 America East), Vermont 9-12 (5-4)
Series, last meeting: UMaine leads 59-34, UMaine 63-51 on 1/9/19
Key players: Maine — 6-1 G Blanca Millan (17.2 points per game, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 steals, 2.1 assists, 1.3 blocked shots), 5-10 G Tanesha Sutton (13.4 ppg, 7 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.7 spg), 5-8 G Parise Rossignol (12.2 ppg, 4 rpg, 1.4 apg), 5-6 G Dor Saar (8 ppg, 5.4 apg, 2.5 rpg), 6-2 F Fanny Wadling (7.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.8 apg), 5-11 F Maeve Carroll (3.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg); Vermont — 6-3 F Hanna Crymble (15.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.3 apg), 6-3 F Candice Wright (9.3 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 bpg), 5-9 G Jose Larkins (8.7 ppg, 2.7 apg, 2.2 rpg), 6-2 F Lauren Handy (5.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg), 5-10 G Rose Caverly (5.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.8 apg), 6-0 F Courtney Wright (3.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg)
Game notes: UMaine has won the last four meetings and 11 of the last 12. Both teams are on a roll. UMaine has won four in a row while Vermont has wins in four of its last five. The Catamounts have struggled to score but are a very sound defensive team. Vermont’s 53.3 points per game is ninth in America East and 341st among 349 teams in the country but Vermont is third in the conference defensively, allowing 58.9 ppg, and has averaged 5.7 blocks which is 10th best in the nation. In their meeting last month, UMaine outscored UVM 16-2 to erase a two-point deficit over the game’s final 4:18 to pull out the victory. Sutton had a game-high 27 points.