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Men's Basketball Travels to America East Championship
March 1, 2006
Complete Release in PDF Format
The University of Maine men's basketball team enters the 2006 America East Tournament riding a season-long three-game winning streak. The Black Bears defeated Stony Brook 87-75 on Sunday afternoon in Stony Brook, N.Y. Maine, which finished the 2005-06 regular season tied for sixth place, is the seventh seed in the tournament and will play Binghamton. A LOOK BACK: Maine is coming off an 87-75 victory over Stony Brook in the regular season finale. After Stony Brook jumped out to an 8-3 lead, Maine answered with a 24-3 run to take a 16 point lead. The Black Bears hit seven three-point field goals during that stretch. The Black Bears continued to hit three-pointers and pushed their lead to 21 points when Ernest Turner (Camden, N.J.) hit a three-pointer with 2:45 remaining in the half. Maine took a 45-28 lead into halftime. The Black Bears maintained an approximate 20 point lead much of the second half before Stony Brook used a 15-4 run to cut the Maine lead to just eight points with 4:00 remaining in the game. The Black Bears hit 15 free throws in the final 2:15 of the game to ensure the victory. Maine hit 15 three-point field goals in the game. Rashard Turner led the way for Maine with a career-high 25 points. He was 4-of-7 from behind the three-point arc and 11-of-13 from the free throw line. Ernest Turner had 19 points, including four three-point field goals. Freddy Petkus (Plunge, Lithuania) had 13 points for the Black Bears as he also had four three-pointers. Jon Sheets added 11 points for Maine, while Olli Ahvenniemi (Vaasa, Finland) chipped in with a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks. SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS: Maine is led by Ernest Turner who is averaging 15.2 points per game and 4.3 rebounds a contest. He is recording 1.4 steals per game. Rashard Turner is scoring 10.5 points per game and has a team-high 2.9 assists per game. Philippe Tchekane Bofia (Yaounde, Cameroon) is adding 9.6 points per game and 5.4 rebounds a game. Jon Sheets is chipping in with 9.5 points per game. He has hit a team-high 65 three-point field goals this season and is dishing out 2.8 assists per game. Bruff is chipping in with 6.7 points per game and 4.3 rebounds a contest. Olli Ahvenniemi is adding 5.9 points per game. He leads the Black Bears in rebounds, with 6.2 per game, and in blocks, averaging 2.6 per game. ?Maine is scoring 64.8 points per game, while its opponents are scoring 68.0 points per game. The Black Bears are shooting 41.6 percent from the floor, while their opponents are connecting 42.7 percent from the floor. TURNER NAMED CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ernest Turner was named America East Co-Player of the Week on Monday, February 27. He shares the honor with Hartford's Kenny Adeleke. Turner averaged 21.0 points and five rebounds and led Maine to a pair of wins. Turner hit a half-court shot as time expired to give Maine a 69-66 win over UMBC. He had 23 points in the game and followed that up with 19 points at Stony Brook. He hit nine three-point field goals on the week. OH SO CLOSE TO THE RECORD: Maine hit 15 three-point field goals on Sunday at Stony Brook, one shy of the school record for three-point field goals in a game. The Black Bears hit 12-of-17 shots from three-point range in the first half and were 3-of-6 in the second half. Maine shot 65.2 percent from three-point range in the game. AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT TIDBITS: Maine finished the 2005-06 season in sixth place in the America East standings but enters the tournament as the seventh seed. Maine has been the seventh seed twice and is 0-2 in those games. The Black Bears were the seventh seed in both 1985 and 1986. REACHING THE SEMIFINALS: Maine has reached the semifinals of the America East Tournament in six of the past seven seasons. The lone time that Maine did not advance to the semifinals was during the 2003 season when the Black Bears were the fourth seed and fell to Northeastern in the quarterfinals. SHEETS, Ernest Turner AMONG THREE-POINT LEADERS: Jon Sheets and Ernest Turner are among the single season three-point field goal leaders at Maine. Sheets currently has 65 three-point field goals which ranks tied for seventh on the list. Ernest Turner ranks tied for 12th with 55 three-point field goals. BLACK BEARS HONORED FOR SUCCESS IN THE CLASSROOM: The men's basketball team had six players honored as scholar-athletes. They all have achieved a 3.0 grade point average or better. Olli Ahvenniemi earned a silver medal as a two-time selection, while Ammar Harknell (Stockholm, Sweden) and Jesse Keith (Levant, Maine) received bronze medals as first-time honorees. Junior Bernal (Manhattan, N.Y.), Philippe Tchekane Bofia and Rashard Turner were all named "Rising Stars" as they received a 3.0 or better in their first semester at Maine. AHVENNIEMI MOVING UP BLOCKS LIST, RECORDS 100TH CAREER BLOCK: Olli Ahvenniemi leads Maine and America East in blocked shots. He ranks tied for 21st in the nation in blocks per game. Ahvenniemi has 70 blocks on the season, averaging 2.6 per game. Ahvenniemi blocked a career-high seven shots in Maine's game against Robert Morris on Monday, November 28. He had five blocks against UNH on Thursday, January 19, and six on Sunday January 29 at Boston University. He ranks fifth on Maine's all-time blocks list with 101 blocks in 66 career games. Justin Rowe holds the Maine record for blocks in a career with 226. THEFT AT VERMONT: Maine recorded 12 steals in its game at Vermont. It is the third most steals this season in a game for Maine and the most against an America East opponent. Jon Sheets led the way with three steals while Tchekane Bofia, Jason Hight (Westbrook, Maine) and Freddy Petkus each recorded two.
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