VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton men's basketball begins its final week of the regular season with an eye on securing a playoff spot when the Bearcats (9-18, 3-11 America East) travel to Baltimore to face UMBC (14-14, 7-6 AE) Wednesday night. Already holding a win over the Retrievers this season, BU will tip-off at 7 p.m. at the UMBC Event Center against a Retrievers team that has overcome a slow conference start and currently is the hottest team in the league. 

QUICK HITS
• This is Binghamton's 74th season of basketball, 19th at the Division I level
• BU was picked to finish T-6th (of 9) in the America East Preseason Poll
• The Bearcats are 111-181 (.380) in 18 years of America East play with one regular season and one tournament title, each won in 2009
• BU returns just one starter and two scholarship players from 10-23 team
• This is the first of two road games to wrap up the regular season
• BU has to win at least one of its remaining two games to have a chance to overtake Maine for the eighth and final playoff spot (Maine holds the tiebreaker)  

Last time out
• On Saturday at home, led Hartford for more than 37 minutes but suffered heartbreaking 75-74 loss
• Opened game with 26-2 run over 7:16 and led by 13 at half before Hawks rallied
• Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms scored game-high 22 points with five assists
• Senior guard Richard Caldwell added 18 points — 13 in the first half
• Senior forward Pierre Sarr added 11 points, eight boards and four steals
• Shot 53% in first half but made just eight FG in second half (29%)              

About UMBC
• Hottest team in the AE right now with five straight wins, including a stunning 66-64 win at Vermont on Saturday
• Also have beaten Hartford and Albany during the streak
• In rare road win in Burlington, UMBC received 18 points from senior all-conference guard K.J. Jackson, shot 56 percent from the field and made 10 3-pointers
• Rank second in the AE in defense, holding opponents to 65.8 points per game
• Started league play 0-4 but have climbed into a tie for fourth with 3 games left
 
All-time series vs. UMBC
• UMBC has won seven of the last eight head-to-head but that eighth game was a 79-75 BU win seven weeks ago in Vestal
• UMBC is 12-4 at home in the series
• The last BU win in Baltimore was five years ago (68-56 on Jan. 28, 2015)
• In that Bearcats win last month at the Events Center, freshman guard Brenton Mills led all scorers with 22 points, sophomore guard Sam Sessoms had 20 points and BU made 11 3-pointers to come out on top in a see-saw game that saw nine score ties and 15 lead changes
• BU made 6-of-6 free throws in the final 19 seconds to seal its first AE win

Sessoms named AE Player of Week for second time this season  
Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms averaged 30.5 points in two games and earned his second America East Player of the Week honor with the nod on Feb. 24. Sessoms broke the school's regulation-game scoring record with 39 points in a win over UMass Lowell and then added 22 points in a final-minute loss to Hartford. He tallied 27 second-half points and scored the go-ahead fadeaway jumper with 20 seconds left to steer Binghamton over UML. It was his third 30+ point game of the season and fifth in two collegiate seasons. Sessoms still leads the America East in assists (4.9) and ranks third in scoring (18.6). He is one of just five underclassmen across the country to rank among their conference top-3 in both scoring and assists.

Sessoms explodes for 39 points, sets regulation game scoring record  
Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms pumped in 39 points in the win over UMass Lowell on Thursday. In the process, he broke the single-game (regulation) scoring mark he shared with two other players at 34 points. Sessoms made 13-of-19 shots (9-of-11 in second half) and scored four points in the final 20 seconds to seal the win. Sessoms now has the record for points in a game (40 in OT win over Boston Univ. on Dec. 7, 2019) and regulation game (39). He has scored 30 or more points five times, including twice this season.
   
Sessoms eclipses 1,000 career points in just 57 games  
Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms scored 22 points on Feb. 12 against Stony Brook to eclipse the 1,000-point scoring mark in his 57th collegiate game. In the process, he became just the seventh player in the league's 41-year history to reach the 1K mark as a sophomore. Sessoms currently ranks second in Div. I era scoring at Binghamton and his career average (18.2 ppg.) puts him in pace to become the program's all-time scoring leader (1,705 pts.) by the end of his junior season. Sessoms is also on pace to surpass the 2,000-point mark by the time he graduates, which would make him a 2K scorer in both high school and college.  

Tinsley has points streak snapped but still top freshman scorer  
Freshman forward George Tinsley has been on a scoring tear of late. He has produced double-digit points in eight of his last nine games and is averaging 13.9 points in that stretch. His 11.6 season scoring average is No. 1 among conference freshmen.

Hjalmarsson featured in AP article about NCAA players from Iceland  
Freshman guard Hakon Hjalmarsson was recently featured in an Associated Press article about the three basketball players from Iceland who are currently playing at Division I (Thorir Thorbjarnarson of Nebraska and Jon Axel Gudmundsson of Davidson). Hjalmarsson scored 12 points in the Feb. 8 game against Maine and is averaging 19 minutes per game. The article link is https://apnews.com/e6e70497dcdecde407e19f0eb7c719ee?utm_medium=AP_Sports&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP_Top25&utm_source=Twitter

Young BU lineup is delivering  
Binghamton is receiving 74% of its offense from underclassmen and its top three scorers are all first or second-year guys.

70 is magic number on offense  
The Bearcats can eye the number 70 on the scoreboard. When BU puts 70 on the board they are 9-4. When the Bearcats score less than 70, they are 0-14.

Bearcats one of youngest teams in nation
Binghamton now is ranked No. 335 in experience (19th youngest team in nation) by KenPom. The team's most common starting lineup shows two freshmen (Mills, Tinsley), a sophomore (Sessoms) and two seniors (Sarr and Caldwell).

Bearcats riding 3-point scoring, rank fifth in country in long distance reliance  
BU ranks 23rd in the country in 3-pointers per game (9.5) and 28th in made 3-pointers (256). They have canned 10 or more 3s 12 times this season, including a season-best 15 against Maine on Feb. 8. In the win over UMass Lowell on Feb. 20, BU hit 11-of-19 attempts (58%). The Bearcats rank No. 5 in the country in 3-point reliance (Ken Pom), with 42% of their offense coming via the 3-ball.

Bearacts among the America East, NCAA stat leaders  
Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms leads the America East in assists (4.9/game) and is third in scoring (18.6). He also ranks third in free throw percentage (82%) and minutes (35.6) and fifth in both steals (1.6) and 3-pointers per game (2.0). Freshman forward George Tinsley ranks first in the nation in minutes (38:19/game). Tinsley moved up to second in the America East in rebounding (7.5), sixth in blocks (1.2/game) and is the top-scoring freshman in the conference (11.6 ppg.). Senior forward Pierre Sarr is fourth in the AE in rebounding (7.3).