Premature.
Primary definition: happening, arriving, existing or performed before the proper, usual or intended time. Secondary definition: the type of celebration performed by nearly everyone who packed the Events Center for Saturday’s game against Albany.
When Mike Gordon rushed the ball up the court with 5.2 seconds left, the crowd was stunned. Not because seeing Gordon run the offense was unusual, but because a few minutes earlier, no one expected the Bearcats would need to score with time winding down.
And after Gordon passed the ball out to Andre Heard on the wing for a final shot which sailed long, the Great Danes celebrated a 52-51 come-from-behind victory that saw them erase a 13-point deficit in the final six minutes. Binghamton’s usually stingy defense vanished down the stretch, allowing Albany to mount a charge and end the game on a 19-5 run.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t make a stop or get a score in the last few minutes,” said head coach Al Walker. “We should have won the game but we didn’t. There was certainly a comfort level that shouldn’t have been there.”
For much of the game, BU’s defense forced Albany’s offensive attack to sputter. The Great Danes showed little consistency, and were being forced into turnovers and bad shots.
But ignited by junior guard Jamar Wilson, the conference’s second-leading scorer, Albany made 6 of 7 from the free-throw line and connected on all six field goals in the final six minutes, including a baseline jumper by junior forward Jason Siggers with 5.2 seconds remaining to cap the comeback.
“We can’t keep letting teams back in the game,” said senior forward Sebastian Hermenier. “We got too relaxed. It really, really should not have gotten to that point. If we locked down and continued to lock down like we had been, continued defending, there’s no doubt about it, this game wouldn’t have been close at all.”
Certain things Binghamton (9-10, 6-2 AE) had done well during its six-game winning streak did not resonate on Saturday. The defense did not come up with a stop in the closing moments, and Ian Milne and Duane James combined for just four points.
On a positive note, after Albany (12-8, 7-2 AE) opened the second half on a 7-2 run, junior guard Troy Hailey broke out of his recent cold streak, and did so in a big way. He hit a deep three-pointer to end the Great Danes’ run, and after the teams traded baskets and free throws, tying the game at 33, the Events Center floor turned into Hailey’s personal playground.
After Gordon brought the crowd to its feet with a breakaway dunk that gave the Bearcats the lead, Hailey scored 11 straight points, finally giving Binghamton an offensive spark. By the time he was done four minutes later, the Bearcats were ahead 46-33 and the crowd was sensing a victory.
But the entire game changed from there.
“We got a little complacent on defense,” Heard said. “They converted on all our mistakes.”
Following the game, Albany head coach Will Brown said his team prepared for the game by practicing with recorded crowd noise being blasted throughout the gym to simulate playing conditions at the Events Center.
But the only crowd noise that mattered Saturday was the deafening silence that could be heard for miles when Siggers hit his jumper, and the identical silence emanating from the 4,743 fans as time expired.
Shock. Primary definition: to strike with surprise, terror, horror or disgust. Secondary definition: the type of celebration performed by nearly everyone who packed the Events Center for Saturday’s game against Albany. Only this one was not premature.