BALTIMORE, Md. – Visiting Binghamton men's basketball (15-14, 7-9 America East) stormed back from a 13-point second half deficit and pulled out a 72-71 win over UMBC (11-20, 6-10 AE) in the regular-season finale Tuesday night at Chesapeake Arena. The Bearcats closed the game with a 22-11 run and sealed the win when a Retrievers' free throw was off the mark with 0.8 left.

The win, BU's third straight to close the regular season, gave the Bearcats the No. 5 seed for the upcoming America East tournament. Binghamton will travel to Durham for a quarterfinal game against No. 4 UNH at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Senior forward Nehemiah Benson scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the pivotal second half, and packed eight of those points into a crucial 3:40 stretch when BU rallied from a 60-50 deficit. A 3-pointer from graduate forward Dan Petcash tied the game at 69-69 with four minutes left, finishing off a 19-9 run. Senior center Tariq Balogun then made a pair of free throws with 3:20 left to give BU its first lead of the game, 71-70. Freshman forward Gavin Walsh then provided the winning edge with a pressure-packed free throw with 24 seconds left.

A wild final two dozen seconds finished with a BU block at the rim that was called a foul with 0.8 seconds left. The Retriever center made the first free throw but missed the second and a last-ditch UMBC scramble-shot was off the side of the backboard at the buzzer.    

Graduate forward Armon Harried and senior guard Tymu Chenery scored 15 points apiece and Petcash and Walsh added eight points apiece.

UMBC began the second half with a 10-0 run to forge ahead 50-37 less than five minutes into the period. But after missing its first eight shots of the half, BU converted 57 percent the rest of the way.

"It was a playoff-style game tonight and a gritty win," head coach Levell Sanders said.

The Bearcats committed seven turnovers in the game's first nine minutes and trailed 34-20 with 4:58 left. But BU closed out the half with a 17-6 run, riding the hot hand of Chenery and Harried, who tallied 11 points each. After a sluggish 3-for-10 to start the game, BU shot 58 percent over the final 12 minutes of the half to pull within three, 40-37, at intermission.
 
NOTES
The Bearcats' strong finished pulled them into a fourth-place tie with UNH in the final standings ... The 15 wins are the most regular season wins since the 2008-09 team won 20 en route to a 23-9 championship season.