The Bearcats’ season finale may have given embattled Binghamton head coach Al Walker another year to prove his worth.
And as usual, he has Mike Gordon to thank.
The Binghamton point guard continued his habit of hitting game-winning shots, this time nailing a 3-pointer with 22 seconds remaining to give the Bearcats a much needed win, 55-53 at the Events Center Thursday night.
The win assures that BU will avoid the much dreaded 8-9 matchup in the America East conference tournament; this means Binghamton will live at least into day two of the of the conference championships, to be held next weekend in Boston.
‘Well, it’s nice to have Mike Gordon on your team,’ said head coach Al Walker. ‘He rose up and buried that jumper and we made a huge, huge stop at the end.’
Trailing 53-50 with 1:28 to go, the Bearcats came out of a timeout with Richie Forbes driving to the basket. He was fouled, and sank one of two free throws, cutting the Binghamton deficit to 53-51. Hartford was whistled for a foul on the other end, giving the ball back to BU and setting the stage for Gordon. He nailed the 3 with 22.2 second left. Hartford came back down, but unsure what to do they called timeout with 5.9 seconds remaining.
For the second consecutive senior day, the Events Center crowd was on its feet, hoping for a last-second miss from the opponent after an emotional game, and they got what they wanted. And then some.
When Hartford came back on the floor, Binghamton called a timeout. And then another. When the teams set up for the final play for the third time, Joe Zeglinski air-balled a 3-point attempt, and the crowd rejoiced as the ball was thrown into the stands in celebration.
But in a season with too much last-second drama for the Bearcats to handle, there was a caveat, and the game was not quite over. An inadvertent whistle was blown, and .8 seconds were put back on the clock. The game was not quite over, and the once boisterous and cheering crowd showered the referees with boos.
After the situation was explained to both coaches and the officials at the scorers’ table, with 3,855 hearts pumping, the call on the floor was announced to the crowd. Rules state that an inadvertent whistle means a jump ball, and the announcement from PA announcer Dave Simek ended with the most comforting phrase the Binghamton faithful have heard all year.
‘ the possession arrow belongs to Binghamton.’
The crowd cheered, knowing BU was an inbounds away from victory and at least seventh place in the conference tournament.
After the Hawks took timeout, again turning cheers to boos, the teams took the court yet again. Hartford was called for an intentional foul, Gordon sank a free throw, the score was 55-53, Binghamton inbounded the ball, Gordon threw it in the air and the longest .8 seconds in the history of sports, as well as the game, were finally over.
The Bearcats overcame an early 11-0 run in the first quarter to climb back in it.
BU fought right back, putting together a 10-2 run to narrow the deficit to 13-10. The teams traded baskets for a minute, before Binghamton finished the half on an 8-1 run to take a 27-21 lead into the locker room.
Early in the second half, with the Bearcats up by 10, the wheels fell off. Hartford went on a 17-4 run and took a 46-43. The Bearcats went over seven minutes without a field goal for part of that run, which was snapped on a slam dunk by Jaan Montgomery that got the crowd back into it with 5:16 to go.
Montgomery’s dunk reignited the Bearcat faithful and Gordon did the rest.
As for the departing seniors, Proctor’s 17 points paced Binghamton; his five 3-pointers tied the team’s season best. Hailey was held in check, with just two points in 22 minutes. James was out of the lineup for the fourth straight game with a head injury he suffered Feb. 8 against Boston University, but said he will play in the conference tournament.
Game Notes
The game winning 3-pointer for Gordon was his 100th career trifecta ‘ Hailey finished his career with a Binghamton record 1,034 points ‘ This was the third time in the last four games between these teams that Gordon hit the game winning basket ‘ Ian Milne will not play in the conference tournament, still bothered by post-concussion syndrome ‘ The Bearcats are now 11-4 when leading at the half, and 6-9 when they lose the opening tip.
Box Score Note
Due to a technical error, the box score for the men’s game against New Hampshire gave credit for a rebound to Ian Milne instead of to Lazar Trifunovic. Because of this we incorrectly reported that Trifunovic was one rebound shy of a double-double. He actually did record his third consecutive double-double in that game.