ORONO – For his 12 teammates on the University of Maine men’s basketball team, Saturday’s game against Morgan State University is a big one. It’s a chance to put a disappointing overtime loss in the rear view mirror and press down a little harder on the accelerator as they approach their conference schedule.

But for South Portland’s own Chris Markwood, the 1 p.m. contest at Cumberland County Civic Center is a homecoming and a long-awaited chance to finally play… for real.

“I’m really excited about this game and finally getting a chance to go out there and play with these guys who I’ve been with for a year now,” Markwood said before a Friday afternoon practice. “No question, I told someone back along this is probably the best Christmas present I could get is just stepping back out on the court. I just want to play.”

The last time the 6-foot-3, 198-pound guard played for real was March, 2002, when he was wearing a Notre Dame Fighting Irish jersey and seeing some action in an NCAA Tournament first-round game.

Fortunate coincidence that the first game Markwood is eligible to play in – due to NCAA transfer eligibility rules – is one on the same court he played all of his school’s playoff games on? Not a chance.

“This being Chris’ first game, we wanted this to happen,” said Maine coach John Giannini. “We believe in taking our players where their family and friends can see them play. A lot of other programs don’t do that, even though they talk about it in recruiting. We’re not like that. We want to do special things for our players.”

The former All-Maine first team high school pick averaged 16 and 21.5 points per game his last two seasons for the South Portland Red Riots. He averaged 0.4 points per game in two injury-plagued seasons at Notre Dame.

Now he’s healthy and ready to make up for lost time.

“I’m not trying to get too hyped up. I just want to get into the flow and try to help this team,” Markwood said. “There’s a lot of pressure on the game, but I don’t think it’s any different to me as a player than a playoff game. I’ve just got to get out there and take a few deep breaths. Once you get into warmups, you pretty much block it out.”

Markwood’s presence is a boon to an injury-depleted Maine lineup that has lost a few players – mostly guards – the last few weeks.

“I haven’t really been practicing with these guys intensely, with the first group, until the last two weeks because up until then, I was with the scout team,” Markwood said. “So far, it’s clicking. Hopefully we can get things rolling and get this thing going.”