BALTIMORE, Md. – Visiting Binghamton men's basketball (12-14, 4-7 America East) closed the game with a furious 21-8 run but came up short at UMBC (12-14, 4-7 AE), 81-77 Thursday night at The Peake.
Down 73-56 with 4:13 left, the Bearcats stormed back and pulled to within three four different times in the final 34 seconds. But the Retrievers made eight free throws in the final minute to hang on for the win and a split of the season series. Each team scored 50 points in the free-flowing second half.
The Bearcats were within four, 40-36, three minutes into the frame before UMBC went on a 15-5 run to build a 17-point cushion. The Retrievers made 9-of-11 shots to open the second half and despite shooting 64% over the final 20 minutes, Binghamton could not complete its comeback.
Binghamton led by as many as 13 points in the first half before becoming discombobulated on the offensive end.
"Instead of keeping it simple we started to complicate things in the first half," head coach
Levell Sanders said. "It affects us defensively. The only way for us to be successful is for guys to be unselfish. We had a lot of unforced turnovers, which we've been dealing with all season. We were never out of the game … just needed to get stops. But we had some defensive breakdowns and missed free throws. When you dig yourself a hole, you can't have breakdowns if you want to come back."
Senior guard
Chris Walker led the Bearcats with 17 points and sophomore forward
Gavin Walsh notched his league-leading 11
th double-double (two shy of Binghamton school record) with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Senior forward
Nehemiah Benson tallied 15 points in 22 foul-plagued minutes. Senior guard
Wes Peterson, Jr. and graduate forward
Ben Callahan-Gold led the spirited late push with a combined 15 points during the closing run. Peterson wound up with 12 points and Callahan-Gold added nine.
Binghamton opened the game with a bang, hitting 6-of-7 shots to forge a 15-2 cushion five minutes in. But despite holding the league's top 3-point team to 1-for-12 shooting from beyond the arc, Binghamton was outscored 29-12 the rest of the half and trailed 31-27 at intermission. The Bearcats hit just 6-of-21 (28%) over the final 15 minutes and surrendered 24 points in the paint as the Retrievers hit 11-of-16 shots (69%) to end the half.
The Bearcats close out their two-game road trip with a Saturday afternoon encounter with NJIT in Newark.
NOTE
With his 14 rebounds,
Gavin Walsh broke the school record for rebounds in a season (266), held by Jordan Reed (2012-13) ... his season rebound average of 10.9 continues to lead the America East and rank among the NCAA top-10.
