Baltimore – The host UMBC men's basketball team won their first America East Conference contest of the season as the Retrievers edged the Maine Black Bears, 70-65, on Thursday evening at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.

"That was a resilient team win for us tonight," said UMBC Head Coach Jim Ferry. "Obviously, we're struggling with some adversity being down two starters, but our guys keep hanging tough. I thought tonight was our best defensive team effort of the year. We really put together a full forty minutes defensively. Offensively, we did a good job of limiting our turnovers in the second half. We played with great trust and were really connected on both ends of the floor."

UMBC (6-13, 1-3 AE) sophomore Dion Brown reached 20 points for the eighth team this season as the guard scored a game-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Junior guard Marcus Banks Jr. added 18 points and freshman guard Ace Valentine tied his season-best with 15 points. Graduate student forward Max Lorca-Lloyd filled the stat sheet with seven points, seven rebounds, four blocks and a career-high five assists.
 
The Retrievers led by as many as 10 points in the opening half with 12:11 left, but the Black Bears evened the contest at 19-19 with 9:34 left. The Retrievers settled for a 34-30 halftime advantage.
 
The second stanza featured six ties, until Maine (8-10, 0-3 AE) led 62-60 with just 3:03 remaining after guard KellenTynes converted a fast break layup. Brown tied the game for the seventh time in the half on the next possession with a layup just 15 seconds later. Valentine then gave the Retrievers the lead for good, 63-62, after making 1-of-2 free throws at the 1:55 mark.
 
The visitors had four opportunities to take the lead on the next trip down but were unable to convert as the shot clock finally ran out with a minute left.
 
Lorca-Lloyd then delivered a clutch conventional three-point play to give the hosts a 66-62 advantage with just 43 ticks left.
 
Forward Kristian Feierbergs nailed a triple to cut Maine's deficit to 66-65 with 29 seconds left, however, Brown made a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to spot the Retrievers a 68-65 lead.
 
The Black Bears had an opportunity to even the score, but Quion Burns misfired on a straightaway trey with six seconds left and Banks put the game out of reach with two more free throws in the final second.
 
Feierbergs and Tynes (6 steals) each scored 13 points to lead the visitors.
 
UMBC will host New Hampshire on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.