diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 3f9e55bf1da..74a91afc870 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -746,6 +746,7 @@ Release 0.90.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-3309  " Not running balancer because dead regionserver processing" is a lie
    HBASE-3314  [shell] 'move' is broken
    HBASE-3315  Add debug output for when balancer makes bad balance
+   HBASE-3278  AssertionError in LoadBalancer
 
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/LoadBalancer.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/LoadBalancer.java
index 9fdd7240635..15f65c60b65 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/LoadBalancer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/LoadBalancer.java
@@ -259,12 +259,13 @@ public class LoadBalancer {
     for(Map.Entry<HServerInfo, List<HRegionInfo>> server :
       serversByLoad.entrySet()) {
       int regionCount = server.getKey().getLoad().getNumberOfRegions();
+      if (regionCount >= min) break;
       BalanceInfo balanceInfo = serverBalanceInfo.get(server.getKey());
       if(balanceInfo != null) {
         regionCount += balanceInfo.getNumRegionsAdded();
       }
       if(regionCount >= min) {
-        break;
+        continue;
       }
       int numToTake = min - regionCount;
       int numTaken = 0;
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestLoadBalancer.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestLoadBalancer.java
index c9751466d36..ca2a4bcbe92 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestLoadBalancer.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/TestLoadBalancer.java
@@ -110,7 +110,8 @@ public class TestLoadBalancer {
       new int [] { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 123 },
       new int [] { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 155 },
       new int [] { 0, 0, 144, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1123, 133, 138, 12, 1444 },
-      new int [] { 0, 0, 144, 1, 0, 4, 1, 1123, 133, 138, 12, 1444 }
+      new int [] { 0, 0, 144, 1, 0, 4, 1, 1123, 133, 138, 12, 1444 },
+      new int [] { 1538, 1392, 1561, 1557, 1535, 1553, 1385, 1542, 1619 }
   };
 
   int [][] regionsAndServersMocks = new int [][] {