MAINE at BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Time, site: 7 p.m., Case Gymnasium, Boston

Records: Maine 12-13 (7-9 in America East), BU 19-6 (13-3)

Series, last meeting: BU leads 46-36, BU 52-43 Feb. 2

Key players: Maine – 6-2 G Kevin Reed (12.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.3 spg), 6-10 F Mark Flavin (10.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg), 6-7 G-F Joe Campbell (8.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg), 6-3 G Chris Markwood (7.8 ppg, 3.8 apg, 1.8 rpg); Boston University – 6-8 F Rashad Bell (15.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg), 6-0 G Chaz Carr (13.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.9 apg), 6-7 F Etienne Brower (9.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg), 6-9 F-C Kevin Gardner (7.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg), 6-2 G Shaun Wynn (6.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.4 apg)

Outlook: A win won’t vault the Black Bears into the top five and a loss won’t drop them out of the top six – which keeps them from having to play an AE tournament preliminary game just to reach the quarterfinals. Maine is tied for fifth with Binghamton, but the Bearcats win the tiebreaker with two wins over Maine, and is two games ahead of Stony Brook. Even two Maine losses and two SBU wins would fail to drop the Bears since Maine swept SBU. The Terriers are going for their ninth straight win against Maine and 11th in the last 12 meetings. The Terriers are first nationally in field goal percentage defense (36.7 percent) and fifth in the nation in scoring defense (55.6 ppg) through games played on or before Feb. 22. Maine is scoring 63.5 ppg and giving up 64.9.