On a day for appealing colors such as pink and red, Binghamton University’s men’s basketball team won ugly as it defeated the visiting New Hampshire Wildcats last night, 56-54.
“Ugly basketball — you saw it today,” said BU head coach Kevin Broadus. “It wasn’t pretty, but we grinded it out. Two teams tonight were searching trying to find a win.”
And both teams were still looking as the Bearcats (11-14, 7-6 America East) six-point lead was cut to one on an Alvin Abreu 3-pointer with 2:42 left. After two missed Binghamton jump shots, UNH (7-17, 4-8) took the lead 51-50 on a Mike Christensen layup with 1:13 to go.
Lazar Trifunovic then hit a fadeaway jump shot from just beyond the foul line to put Binghamton back up one. UNH’s Dane DiLiegro was fouled on the next possession but despite missing both free throws, Tyrece Gibbs grabbed the second miss and found an open Abreu who hit a 3-pointer to put UNH up 54-52 with 23 seconds left. But in the span of seven seconds, Mike Gordon drove the length of the floor and scored on a floater in the lane to tie the game.
“We really broke down defensively,” said UNH head coach Bill Herrion. “Nobody contained Mike Gordon. Our defensive was really out of position on that.”
Then, with a chance to win the game, Gibbs drove the lane and missed a layup as Reggie Fuller grabbed the defensive rebound and was fouled with nine seconds remaining. Fuller, a 74 percent free-throw shooter, hit both. Gibbs was fouled on the other end with 2.9 seconds to go and missed both shots. Fuller contested the final shot, and it fell short for a Binghamton victory.
The game featured 11 lead changes, but the Bearcats were kept in it thanks to the low post presence of Fuller who had 12 points and nine assists, and Trifunovic, who added 12 and 10. Binghamton outscored UNH in the paint 32-to-16 as the Bearcats shot 45 percent from the field but just 3-of-12 from behind the arc.
Gordon finished with a team-high 18 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Abreu led UNH with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds. The Wildcats went 5-for-10 from the charity strip but missed their final four free throws.
“You’ve got to make free throws,” Herrion said. “We really had a chance to come in here and steal one.”
The Bearcats, who are first in the conference in free throw percentage shooting 75 percent, finished the game 7-for-11 including 6-for-6 in the second half.
“We practice it every day,” Broadus said. “The last four games, it went to the whoa, scary, but we stepped it up tonight hit the big free throws.”
Showdown with Maine Sunday: Binghamton now sits in sixth place in the conference and will take on the Maine Black Bears this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Events Center.
The Black Bears (7-17, 3-8) are led by Mark Socoby, who averages 14.5 ppg and six rebounds per game. The Bearcats defeated Maine on Jan. 27, 69-58 in the two teams’ last meeting as Binghamton held Maine to 33 percent from the field including 26 percent in the second half. And Broadus knows its that kind of defensive effort that is going to be key for the Bearcat.
“Hopefully we come out Sunday and play harder and get another victory,” Broadus said. “We just have to find ways to win games — the way to win games is defensively.”