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Fresh off a nice win on the road over Harvard, the Vermont men's basketball team looks to make it three in a row when it opens America East play against Maine at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor Wednesday night. Tipoff between the Black Bears and Catamounts is set for 7 p.m.
 
The game can be seen on AmericaEast.TV and heard locally on ESPN 101.3 FM with AJ Kanell on the call.

RELATED LINKS:
Vermont Game Notes (.pdf)
Maine Game Notes
Maine Game Coverage: Live Video -- Live Audio -- Live Stats
Harvard Game Coverage: Recap -- CatamounTV Highlights
 
Last Time Out vs. Harvard: Corey Johnson's desperation 35-foot heave at the buzzer clanked off the side iron and the Vermont men's basketball team knocked off the Harvard Crimson, 65-62, to close out non-conference play Sunday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion. Ethan O'Day emerged from a prolonged scoring slump in a big way finishing with 16 points and six rebounds. Ernie Duncan collected 14 points, three assists and three boards while Trae Bell-Haynes chipped in with 10 points, five steals and four assists. Drew Urquhart continued to play well snatching 10 misses for his second double-digit rebound game this season. Harvard erased the five-point Vermont halftime lead quickly to start the second half. The Cats responded, though, and slowly built a 10-point cushion over the next six minutes. Duncan canned a big jumper to put Vermont up 51-41 with 12:11 to play. The Crimson then used an 8-0 spurt to claw back within two (51-49) when Corbin Miller hit another three. But like all afternoon, Vermont had an answer for every Harvard punch. An 11-2 run followed and was capped off by a Cam Ward finish at the rim to give UVM it's biggest lead of the day, 62-51 with 5:32 left.
 
About Maine: Under second-year head coach Bob Walsh, Maine has already surpassed last season's win total and has won two straight games entering Wednesday's conference opener. The Black Bears picked up wins over Quinnipiac and Brown - both at home - to bring their win total to four. Maine was slated for a ninth-place finish in the league's preseason coaches' poll after finishing 2014-15 with a 3-27 record. The Black Bears are led by backcourt tandem Kevin Little and Aaron Calixte. The two combined for 46 points in the win over Brown. Little comes into the game averaging 14.5 points per game while Calixte tosses in 8.2. Issac Vann, a talented freshman out of Bridgeport, Conn., averages 15.8 points per game but hasn't played since Nov. 25 against Longwood. Bob Walsh was hired as the Maine head coach prior to the 2014-15 season after a remarkably successful stint as head coach of Rhode Island College. He has a career record of 211-99.
 
Series History: Maine leads the all-time series against Vermont, which dates back to the 1949-50 season, 70-61. Since Vermont beat Maine in the 2004 America East title game, the Cats have gone 18-6 against the Black Bears. John Becker is 8-1 in his career vs. Maine.
 
Last Season vs. Maine: The Catamounts swept the season series with Maine in 2014-15. In the first meeting last season in Portland, Dre Wills scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists as the Cats shook off a slow start to win, 68-54. In February at Patrick Gym, Vermont jumped out to a 20-point lead and never looked back cruising to a 68-49 win.
 
Top Cats in America East: Since the start of the 2002-2003 season, Vermont has 185 America East wins. That is the most in the league and 65 more than the next team (Albany - 120).
 
Cats in January: Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Vermont has gone 30-7 in the month of January. The Cats were 7-3 last season and 8-1 in 2013-14.