BALTIMORE, Md. – UMBC (15-9, 5-4 America East) built a 15-point halftime bulge and held off visiting Binghamton men's basketball (9-13, 5-3 AE) 69-55 Wednesday night at the Chesapeake Arena.

The Bearcats trimmed a 20-point second-half hole to eight with seven minutes remaining but couldn't complete the comeback, despite 32 combined points from junior forward Armon Harried and graduate forward Miles Gibson.

Down 52-32 with 17:36 left, Harried fueled an 11-0 run that spanned 4:37 with six points and that spurt brought the Bearcats back to single digits. Later in the half, Gibson canned a trademark fadeaway jumper to cut the margin to eight, 59-51, with 7:17 left. But the Retrievers answered with a 10-2 run and BU couldn't mount a final charge.  

"Defensively we were pretty bad in the first half," head coach Levell Sanders said of the halftime deficit. "Offensively we weren't sharing the ball and settled for bad shots. We didn't put enough pressure on UMBC as team. We have to play much better to beat the top teams in the league."

Playing in his hometown in front of a large contingent of family and friends, Harried did his part with a strong game. He tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. He added team-highs of six assists and three blocks.  

After a back-and-forth start with five ties and three lead changes, the teams were deadlocked at 17-17 midway through the first half. But after hitting 8-of-14 to open the game (57%), BU missed nine of its next 10 shots and UMBC embarked on a devastating 22-3 run that spanned 7+ minutes. UMBC hit four 3-pointers during the run, which gave the hosts a 39-20 cushion late in the half. BU brought it back to a 15-point margin, 43-28, at intermission.

The Bearcats came into the game having won two straight and positioned in second place but left in a three-way tie for fourth place in a tightly-packed standings.

Binghamton has a bye this weekend and will return to action next Wednesday at New Hampshire.