Stony wall

UMaine needs a victory Saturday on two fronts: A.) to claim the season's first America East victory at Alfond Arena and, B.) to retain any hope of getting out of the play-in game at the upcoming conference tournament.

New Hampshire can make the latter a moot point with a victory at UMBC, but that's unlikely. Because the UMaine/Stony clash is at noon and UNH doesn't begin until 7 p.m., the Wildcats will know if anything's at stake come tip-off time down in Maryland.

Black Bears should be in an ornery mood after back-to-back blowout losses. To mount any type of last-gasp surge, turnovers must be cut down and defensive effort must pick up. The last three games will present an opportunity to show they haven't gone into hibernation just yet.

Fight for the 7 seed
Games remaining
UMaine: Stony Brook, UMBC, at Vermont
UNH: at UMBC, Vermont

A little to the north in the standings, the shakedown takes a break as four AE teams take part in Saturday's Bracket Buster: Boston U. at St. Peter's, Vermont at UNC-Wilmington, Binghamton at Manhattan, Albany at Canisius.

The second through sixth seeds in America East will get sorted out beginning Wednesday, Feb. 27, when Albany travels down the interstate to take on Binghamton.