Al Walker stresses playing all 40 minutes and on Sunday his team responded.

Down 11 points with 3:55 to go, Binghamton went on an 18-2 run to defeat Vermont 67-62 for the first time in five tries at Patrick Gymnasium in both team’s regular-season finales.

“We just had to keep playing hard,” said sophomore Mike Gordon, who scored seven of his 13 points in the final three minutes. “We started trapping the ball and they just threw it away. Our defense really helped our offense.”

Vermont (11-16, 7-9 AE) committed 22 turnovers in the game, which Binghamton (15-12, 12-4 AE) converted into 23 points, and Martin Klimes lost the ball on three consecutive possessions at the end of regulation, allowing the Bearcats to tie the game at 61 with 1:27 to go.

“They physically don’t handle the basketball well, so we were able to make some great plays on the defensive end,” Walker said.

With the Bearcats trailing by one, senior Andre Heard, who had a game-high 22 points, hit an off-balanced jumper with 38 seconds remaining. The Catamounts held the ball for one final shot but Klimes missed a contested layup with 2.1 seconds left, and BU hit four free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory.

“That’s why you play the whole game,” Gordon said. “Any team can make a run at any time.”

The Bearcats’ offense struggled in the first half, as they connected on just 1-of-9 three-point attempts and found themselves down 29-18 at halftime. But thanks to BU’s aggressive man-to-man defense, the Bearcats were able to finally get some easy layups on the other end.

In the second half things turned around for Binghamton, as they shot 51 percent from the floor, including hitting 5-of-11 from three-point range.

Binghamton had been in this situation before, but on the other end of things. At home against Albany, the Bearcats held an 11-point lead with 4:22 remaining. But the Great Danes went on a 15-3 run to end the game and defeated Binghamton by one point. The Bearcats know that playing all 40 minutes is extremely important, especially going into this weekend’s America East tournament.

“Coach always says you have to keep fighting until the game is over, if you are up 20 or down 20,” Heard said. “We have to play hard every minute we are on the court.”