Bearcats Close Season With Loss to Hartford

The Binghamton Bearcats men's basketball season came to a close last night in Albany as Hartford rolled to a 69-42 victory in an America East Tournament quarter-final playoff game.  Binghamton was hoping to make it a "third time's the charm" scenario after Hartford swept the regular season series.  BU lost at home in the closing four seconds in January and then just a few days ago the Hawks had to go to overtime to top the Bearcats in Hartford.

Last night the Hawks left nothing to chance sprinting out to a 17-3 lead and never looked back.  Binghamton was down 31-20 at the half.  In the second half the Bearcats got a couple of quick three's but the Hawks never faltered building up to a 48-28 lead less than five minutes in the second 20 minutes.

First Team All-Conference selection Mark Nwakamma was the driving force at both ends of the court for the Hawks.  He scored 19 points and blocked six shots.  14 of his 19 points came in the second half.  Jordan Reed, Binghamton's leading scorer and a 2nd Team All America East selection was held to seven points on 2-12 shooting.  He came in averaging 15.7 points per game and scored 33 points versus Hartford in the last meeting between the two teams.

Binghamton ends the season with a 7-23 record while the Hawks moved to 17-15.  They had their season ended tonight as they lost to Stony Brook 69-64 in a semi-final round game.  Also winning today was Albany as the Great Danes upset regular season champion Vermont 67-58.  Stony Brook will host the Great Danes next Saturday for the America East Championship and a chance for an automatic NCAA berth.