BALTIMORE, Md. – After a six-hour start delay due to a power outage, fifth-seeded Binghamton (13-17) provided the power down the stretch to outlast fourth-seeded UMBC (18-14) 67-65 in the America East quarterfinals Saturday night at Chesapeake Arena. With the win, BU advances to the semifinals for the second straight year and third time in the last five years. The Bearcats will face No. 1 Vermont on Tuesday night in Burlington.

Senior guards Jacob Falko and Dan Petcash sank two free throws apiece in the last 18 seconds and junior forward Armon Harried secured the final rebound off an intentional UMBC FT miss with one second left to seal the win.

"I'm proud of the guys," head coach Levell Sanders said. "It was a crazy day with the long delay but I'm happy these guys were able to keep their focus. I thought they came out ready to play and total credit to them."   

Falko scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and extended a 63-62 lead with two free throws with 18.8 seconds left. Up three, BU intentionally fouled the Retrievers with 13 seconds left and Craig Beaudion made both to trim the margin to one, 65-64. The Bearcats got the ensuing inbounds into the hands of their best free throw shooter and Petcash (85%) converted both with seven seconds left. BU then had another intentional foul with 2.2 seconds left and after Beaudion made the first, he banked the second off the back iron hoping for an offensive board, but Harried corralled it instead.

The second half featured six ties and five lead changes. The last was a go-ahead free throw from Harried with 1:33 left.

Falko added to his stat sheet with nine rebounds. Graduate forward Miles Gibson contributed 13 points and eight rebounds, and Petcash and graduate forward Christian Hinckson tallied 11 points apiece.

The Bearcats jumped out to a 16-7 lead five minutes into the game. Gibson tallied 13 points and BU hit 8-of-10 to start the game and build a nine-point edge. But the Retrievers countered with a 17-6 run over 10+ minutes to grab the lead. The teams played a tightly-defended half with both shooting under 39 percent. After the hot start, BU made just 4-of-21 the rest of the period as three starters were hit with two fouls. Hinckson was saddled with three fouls after scoring six quick points.

NOTES
Binghamton lost both regular season games to UMBC and had lost five of the last six meetings … the win also gave BU its most overall wins (13) since  2009-10 … it also gave the Bearcats an upset tourney win for the second straight year after beating No. 3 UNH last March.