No. 7 Seeded Men's Hoops Opens Jersey Mike's America East Playoffs at No. 2 UMass Lowell on Saturday Afternoon

UMBC IN THE AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT

The Retrievers are 17-18 in America East postseason play since joining the conference in 2003-04.
This is the second time that the Retrievers have come into the tournament as the No. 7 seed (2014-15, lost in opening round).
The Retrievers have reached the championship game five times.
UMBC won the tournament in 2008 and 2018.
The Retrievers reached the finals in Head Coach Jim Ferry's first season in 2022 but fell at Vermont.

SETTING THE STAGE

The Retrievers have won four of their last six contests.
UMBC went 5-4 in February, their first winning month of the season.
The Dawgs are 5-11 on the road this season.
UMBC is 8-15 all-time against the River Hawks.
SO guard Dion Brown is 6th in the country with 239 field goals and is 41st with 589 points. He broke UMBC's sophomore scoring mark at Binghamton on Feb. 15.
Junior guard Marcus Banks, Jr. is 66th in the NCAA with 80 treys.
Graduate student forward Max Lorca-Lloyd is 17th in the nation in rejections at 2.31 per game.
The Dawgs are 78th nationally in 3-point field goal accuracy at 35.9 percent.
The Retrievers are 60th in the country with 78.6 ppg.
The Retrievers held a lead at the half in 12-of-16 America East contests but were only able to secure six wins.

SERIES HISTORY

UMBC and UML have met 23 times.
UML holds a 15-8 advantage in the series.
The River Hawks have taken four straight and seven of the last eight meetings from the Retrievers.
The Retrievers last win against UML was a 93-85 OT win in Baltimore on 3/6/22
UMBC is 3-7 all-time in Lowell.
UML edged the Retrievers, 86-82, in Lowell this past January. Dion Brown recorded a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds. Max Brooks paced the River Hawks with 24 points and 13 rebounds.
The RIver Hawks picked up a 93-80 victory in Baltimore in February. Brooks had a monster game with 31 points and 19 boards. Brown poured in 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Dawgs.

A GLANCE AT THE RIVER HAWKS

Guard Ayinde Hakim is 7th in the AE in scoring (15.2 ppg.) and is 2nd with 5.5 assists per game.
Forward Max Brooks is averaging 13.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest.
The River Hawks were picked to finish second this season after reaching the AE finals in 22-23.
UML leads the league in scoring (80.0 ppg.), free throw percentage (.736), and combined team rebounds (40.1 rpg.)

FOUR RETRIEVERS EARN AMERICA EAST POSTSEASON HONORS

Brown and junior guard Marcus Banks Jr. were both selected to the 2023-24 America East All-Conference teams, it was announced by the league office on Thursday afternoon.
Brown earned First Team accolades while Banks Jr. slotted on the Third Team.
In addition, freshmen guards Ace Valentine (Columbia, Md./Mount St. Joseph) and Franck Emmou (Mansfield, TX/Mansfield Summit) were named to the All-Rookie Team.

BROWN RACING UP THE ALL-TIME SCHOOL CHARTS

It's been a breakout season for super sophomore Dion Brown.
Brown, a two-time AE Player of the Week this season, broke Jairus Lyles' sophomore record of 482 set in 2015-2016 and now has 589 points.
Only seven players at UMBC have scored 500 points in a season and just three have hit the 600-point mark.
Brown currently has the 5th-highest scoring season in UMBC history and needs 22 points to pass Rick Moreland '83 for third. He needs just 16 points to move into 4th.
His 239 field goals this season is already a sophomore record and he ranks 6th in the NCAA in the category. Brown's converted the third-most field goals in UMBC single-season history and needs 11 more to surpass Moreland for second.
Brown's 19.0 points per game is currently the sixth-highest single-season average in history (Jairus Lyles, 23.0).
His 237 rebounds is the second-most by a sophomore.
Brown is currently on pace to score over 1,500 career points and grab 500 rebounds. Only three Retrievers (Rick Moreland '83, John Goedeke '79 and Reggie Nance '81) have ever accomplished that feat.

WHO'S HOT

Brown is third in the league in scoring (19.0 ppg.) and is sixth in rebounding (7.7 rpg.).
He led the America East in scoring (21.4 ppg.) and rebounding (9.6 rpg.) in league games.
Brown's 82 offensive rebounds on the season is also a league-high.
Brown has produced 20 or more points 15 times this season, including ten in conference-play
He leads the league in conference games with 8 doubles-doubles, eight 10-rebound games and ten 20-point performances.
Junior guard Marcus Banks Jr. is second in the AE in 3-pt field goals per game (2.6) and is 7th in 3-pt accuracy (35.0). He's also 7th overall in scoring at 14.8 ppg.
Banks is averaging 18.9 ppg. in conference contests, which ranks 4th in the league.
He's also averaging a league-best 3.0 treys per game in AE contests. Banks is 66th in the NCAA with 80 treys and has moved into a tie for 6th-place on UMBC's single-season top-10 in the category.He needs just two more to move up to 4th.
Graduate student forward Max Lorca-Lloyd is tied for tops in the league with 2.2 blocks per game and is 17th in rebounding (5.1 pg.).
He's averaged 7.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in AE play.
Lorca-Lloyd is now 5th on UMBC's single-season list with 62 rejections. He needs two more to move up to fourth.
FR guard Franck Emmou has shot the ball extremely well in his first season in Baltimore. Emmou, who scored a career-high 24 points at UAlbany, is 30-for-60 from 3-point territory and is 44-for-50 (.880) from the foul line this season. He's 67-for-141 (.475) from the field overall. Emmou is a spectacular 17-for-31 (.548) from deep in conference play and is netting 7.7 ppg.
Regimantas Ciunys has seized on his opportunity over the past nine games as he's averaged 8.9 points and 5.7 rebounds in just under 22 minutes off the bench. He recorded a career-high 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting against UAlbany on February 17. Ciunys also recorded his first career double-double at Binghamton.