VESTAL, N.Y. - Visiting New Hampshire (13-9, 6-3 America East) closed the game with a 12-5 run to overtake Binghamton men's basketball (5-18, 2-8 AE), 59-55, in front of 2,642 Saturday afternoon at Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center.

The Bearcats led throughout and held a 50-47 lead after senior guard Marlon Beck drilled his fourth three-pointer of the game with 4:10 left. But BU misfired on 7-of-8 after that and UNH capitalized with an 8-0 run that featured four free throws. The Wildcats were held 13 points under their season scoring average and shot under 30 percent throughout the game, but hit 19-of-22 free throws to seize the win and sweep the season series.

Beck led the Bearcats with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. He made 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Everson Davis added 12 points and seven boards and sophomore forward Willie Rodriguez chipped in 10 points in a season-low 19 minutes. Rodriguez picked up two fouls in the game's first 1:05 and was nursed in and out of the lineup before fouling out with 15 seconds left. Sophomore center Bobby Ahearn also fouled out and second-year big man Dusan Perovic was saddled with four fouls.

"That's a tough loss," head coach Tommy Dempsey said. "We had a lot of foul trouble and fought adversity throughout the game. We had to call on a lot of guys and I was pleased that every guy who checked in played as hard as he could. It's just unfortunate we weren't able to win it at the end because it would've been a great team win. I thought we imposed our will and made them uncomfortable. They are a good offensive team and we held them to 30 percent shooting and outrebounded them by 11. We did the things we needed to do to beat one of the better teams in the league but unfortunately we didn't have more points on the scoreboard."

Binghamton held its largest lead when freshman center Thomas Bruce took a feed from Beck and made a layup with 14:18 left, giving BU a 36-27 cushion. Rodriguez scored three points in a 28-second span to keep the momentum going, up 39-31 with 10:20 left. But the Wildcats began a steady stream of free throw shooting (14-of-16 in second half) and chipped away at the margin. A 15-5 UNH run gave them a 55-50 lead with 0:46 left before Davis countered with four straight BU points that brought the home squad to within one, 55-54 with eight seconds left. But UNH sealed it with 4-of-4 free throws in the closing seconds.

The Bearcats opened the game with six straight misses but then hit 6-of-9 to grab the lead. Binghamton led 23-15 on a Bruce offensive rebound and dunk with 2:39 left. The Wildcats, however, scored the last six points of the half to edge closer and trail just 23-21 at break (despite shooting 26%).

Binghamton welcomes longtime SUNY rival Albany to the Events Center for an ESPN3 tilt Monday night.