In the grand scheme of things, a 66-65 win against Stony Brook probably isn’t that big of a deal.

‘Big deal,’ cynics will say. ‘One point better than a last-place team.’

But Wednesday night at the Events Center was something special, something to remember.

Throw away the records for a minute. Down one point with less than a second left, Mike Gordon took a page out of playground basketball, bouncing the ball off an opponent’s back to score a most unlikely game-winning bucket.

Gordon seemed to summon the magic of Brandon Carter ’04, who lit up Hartford exactly three years earlier on Jan. 31, 2004 ‘ opening night of BU’s Events Center ‘ for 31 spectacular points in an unforgettable win.

On this night, the BU Zoo ‘ although not in full force ‘ stormed the court as if it had just witnessed Binghamton win the NCAA tournament. My colleague, L.J. Spaet, who always tries to stay even-keeled, grabbed my arm and could not stop screaming, his voice luckily drowned out by the 3,000 other people doing the same.

Heck, I’m surprised they didn’t get Al Walker a ladder to cut down the nets.

The fun didn’t end in the post-game. After the typical coach interviews ended, the media room cleared out, leaving four Pipe Dream guys and three players. The atmosphere was remarkable.

Steve Proctor started telling jokes about Troy Hailey’s dreads. Hailey bragged about selling his shoes at the campus bookstore and Gordon looked like the Mike Gordon of old, reminding us to watch for his shot on SportsCenter.

In every sense of the word, this game reminded everyone in attendance, listening on the radio or watching on the Internet that basketball can be fun ‘ even if it’s Binghamton vs. Stony Brook.

The win brings us to this weekend’s Big Purple Growl at Albany ‘ 7 p.m. start tomorrow night, with the game on live regional TV and plenty of Albany fans still fuming at Richie Forbes.

Forbes earned the moniker of ‘dirty player’ from the Great Dane faithful after he drew a technical foul against Albany by walking through the Great Danes’ huddle the last time the two teams met. When Albany’s Jason Siggers shoved him away, the ref T-ed Siggers up. Of course, in the Zoo’s eyes, Forbes was 100 percent not in the wrong ‘ right? (This is, of course, the Binghamton student newspaper.)

At the moment, this game doesn’t look like much on paper. Albany will be heavily favored at home, with a sold-out crowd and an America East title on the mantle.

But we’ve got Forbes. We’ve got some newfound magic (thanks to Gordon) and a win over the Danes already this season.

And we’ve got a BU Zoo that’s ready to travel and ruin this celebration of everything that is Albany athletics.

‘The BU Zoo is always going to be there for us,’ Proctor said after Wednesday’s game. ‘They love us on campus. We’re just like them ‘ we’ve got class with probably everybody in the stands.’

Now, tomorrow, we’ll bring that storied student section on the road. We’ll cheer on our ‘dirty’ shooting guard, and hopefully, if we can keep up the magic, we’ll be chanting ‘this is our house’ as the buzzer sounds tomorrow night. Who cares about records.

Tomorrow’s game is how a rivalry is born ‘ and THAT’s a big deal.