VESTAL, N.Y. - Reduced to a five-man rotation for the final 28 minutes, Binghamton men's basketball (8-23, 4-12 America East) showed its grit by holding off visiting Maine (8-22, 6-9 AE) 74-67 Saturday afternoon at Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center. It was the team's third win in the last four games to end the season.
Unfortunately, hours after the big win, the Bearcats' playoff hopes were vanquished when third-place NJIT was upset by four-win Bryant. Binghamton needed Bryant to drop that game and its final regular season game Tuesday to grab the eighth and final tournament seed.
On Senior Day Saturday, seniors
Wes Peterson, Jr. and
Jackson Benigni had to go the full 40 minutes after the Bearcats' already thin lineup suffered yet another blow when starting forward
Zyier Beverly was sent off 12 minutes in. Peterson netted 12 of his 15 points in the first half to stake Binghamton to a seven-point lead. Benigni was huge down the stretch with two 3-pointers in a 1:30 span late in the game to give the Bearcats enough of a cushion to hang on.
Junior point guard
Jeremiah Quigley also went 40 minutes and produced an impressive points-rebounds double-double for a 5-10 guard. Quigley totaled game-highs of 24 points and a career-high 12 points and also added five assists. It was his sixth double-double of the season. Quigley ended his campaign with a school-record 192 assists. He continues to lead the America East and rank among the nation's top-20 in assists.
"It was an awesome game," head coach
Levell Sanders said. "It was fitting ... we knew how big this game was but we talked about sending our seniors off the right way. We played a monster game and they (seniors Peterson and Benigni) had a big part in it. We made some shots and controlled our turnovers. We knew we could spread the floor and make shots."
The Bearcats extended their halftime lead to double digits early in the second half and led 63-48 with 8:21 remaining. But with Binghamton's five-man rotation showing fatigue, the Black Bears went on a 14-0 run to pull within one, 63-62, with 3:15 left. But Benigni answered a Maine 3-pointer with the first of his two straight treys with 2:53 left. After a zone-busting alley-oop jam from Quigley to sophomore forward
Stephan Snagg, Benigni went back to work with another 3 to give the Bearcats a 71-65 lead with 1:23 remaining. Binghamton then made three free throws in the final 23 seconds to seal the win.
Peterson wound up with 15 points and eight rebounds. Benigni had 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. Freshman guard
Jake Blackburn added 11 points (3-for-6 3-pt.).
The Bearcats shot 54 percent for the game and hit nine 3-pointers. Binghamton opened the game with a 13-4 run and led from start to finish.
Binghamton endured a unique season that saw a record-setting number of man-games lost to injury. Of the team's 13 scholarship players, nine missed multiple games with injury, including seven who suffered season-ending injuries. The Bearcats' roster combined to miss 170 games and no one player was able to play in all 31 games. Sanders was forced to use 14 different starting lineups.
