America East men’s championship

MAINE vs. VERMONT

Time, site: Saturday, 11:30 a.m., Patrick Gym, Burlington, Vt.

Records: Maine 20-9 (14-6 in America East), Vermont 21-8 (17-3)

Series, last meeting: Maine 65-40; Maine 72-67 on 2/29/04

Key players: Maine – 6-2 G Kevin Reed (14.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg), 2.3 spg), 6-3 G Eric Dobson (12.9 ppg, 5.0 apg), 6-10 F Mark Flavin (12.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.9 bpg), 6-7 F Joe Campbell (7.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg), 6-3 G Chris Markwood (6.0 ppg, 2.6 apg, 1.7 rpg), 6-2 G Ludmil Hadjisotirov (5.8 ppg); Vermont- 5-11 G T.J. Sorrentine (14.9 ppg, 4.6 apg, 2.8 rpg), 6-7 F-C Scotty Jones (6.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg), 6-4 F Germain Njila (6.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg), 6-5 G David Hehn (5.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.6 apg), 6-2 G Alex Jensen (5.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg), 6-9 F Taylor Coppenrath (23.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg)

Outlook: The buzz around the Burlington campus is that two-time AE player of the year Coppenrath will play. This comes a month after he broke his left wrist and was pronounced out for the season. Coppenrath practiced Wednesday, but is still questionable for Saturday. Even with Coppenrath, Vermont is only 4-3 against Maine the last three seasons. The key, as usual, for Maine will lie in fundamental execution, namely rebounding, foul shooting, and turnovers. If Maine can play as fundamentally sound as it did in the last game and continue to get solid contributions off the bench, the Bears could be watching Sunday’s NCAA selection show with unprecedented interest.