The losses keep piling up for the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
The Black Bears have started their 2025-26 campaign with nine straight losses, and head coach Chris Markwood announced on Monday that the team will also be without two of its players for the remainder of the season.
Senior forward Killian Gribben and sophomore guard Darius Lopes will both miss the rest of the season, according to a UMaine press release.
“Both Gribben and Lopes are dealing with lower body injuries that will sideline them for the entirety of the 2025-26 season,” the release said. “Lopes suffered his injury in the preseason while Gribben suffered his during his season debut at Stony Brook.”
The 6-foot-10 Gribben was an important presence for the Black Bears in the paint last season, when UMaine finished second in the America East Conference tournament. As part of a trio of big men down low that Markwood dubbed the team’s “three-headed monster,” Gribben averaged 5.3 points, three rebounds, more than one block and nearly 18 minutes per game.
With Gribben’s absence and the departure of fellow forward Ridvan Tutic, senior forward Keelan Steele is the only member of that trio left on the floor for the Black Bears this season.
Gribben transferred to UMaine last season after two years at Siena University. He is originally from Letterkenny, Ireland.
UMaine lost several guards from last year’s team to graduation and the transfer portal, and Lopes could have seen more of a role in the Black Bear backcourt this season. But after not appearing in a game for UMaine last season, that will once again be the case for the injured 6-foot-4 guard.
Lopes is from West Warwick, Rhode Island and played at Vermont Academy in high school.
UMaine will be looking for its first win of the season against Ohio University on Wednesday night. That game will be played in Athens, Ohio and starts at 7 p.m.
