Bearcats Sweep River Hawks

On a day when 11 varsity sports were in competition, the Binghamton Bearcats men's and women's basketball teams took center stage at the Events Center in Vestal.

The BU women came from behind to defeat the UMass Lowell River Hawks 55-52 by scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter.  The win puts Binghamton's conference record at 7-7.  The men then nailed down the sweep with an 81-77 victory over the River Hawks to earn their fourth conference win of the season.

In the women's game the Bearcats offense struggled for much of the first three periods before catching fire in the fourth to post the win.  BU went to overtime to defeat UML 75-70 on the road last month.  Imani Watkins paced all Bearcat scorers with 21 points.  Alyssa James added 18 more.

In the nightcap the men never trailed in the game and held the River Hawks off in the second half to up their conference record to 4-10.  BU lead 39-31 at the end of the first half.  UML outscored Binghamton 46-42 in the second half but two clutch free throws from Marlon Beck with 9.5 seconds remaining iced it for the Bearcats

Beck scored 14 points  to lead all Binghamton scorers.  He was 6-6 at the free throw line.  As a team the Bearcats made 22 of 28 free throw attempts for a 78.6 percentage. Timmy Rose notched 13 points while Bobby Ahearn, Thomas Bruce and Willie Rodriguez all scored 11 points.

The Bearcats start the final week of the regular season with games against the UMBC Retrievers.  The women host UMBC Wednesday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. (6:45 on ESPN 1360 AM) and the men travel to face the Retrievers 7:00 p.m. (air at 6:45 on News Radio 1290 WNBF).