Binghamton Bearcats Snare Road Win

The Binghamton Bearcats men's basketball team defeated the UMBC Retrievers at the RAC last night in suburban Baltimore 72-70.  BU was up by as many at 18 points in the second half only to have the Retrievers roar back and take a two point lead with 1:42 left in the game.  The Bearcats tied it at 68-68 on a free throw from Marlon Beck with 1:32 remaining.

BU went ahead 70-68 on a layup by Jordan Reed and used free throw makes from Yosef Yacob and Karon Waller to secure a 72-70 road win.  The Bearcats were paced in scoring by Yacob's 20 points and Marlon Beck's 16 points.  Jordan Reed hit for 12 points and Roland Brown scored 10 points to bolster Binghamton's inside game.

Standout freshman Rodney Elliott was the top gun for UMBC with 19 points while Chase Plummer added 12 more.  With the win BU splits the season series with the Retrievers avenging a January defeat at the Events Center.  The victory also puts Binghamton in a position to move up in the standings in America East.  The Bearcats are now 4-10 with two more games to go.  BU travels to Hartford Thursday night for a 7 PM game and then hosts conference leader Vermont next Sunday at 2 PM.

The way the America East standings sit currently the Bearcats are tied with New Hampshire for seventh place with 4-10 records.  However, UMass Lowell in fifth place at 7-8 is ineligible to play in the post-season tournament under NCAA rules since it is their first year at the Division I level.  So in essence BU and New Hampshire are tied for sixth place as far as conference-tournament seeding is concerned.  The sixth place team meets the third place team (currently Hartford) in the opening round.  The seventh place team meets the second place team (currently Stony Brook).