Ryan Bernstein made two free throws with nine seconds remaining on Saturday afternoon, lifting the University of Maine men’s basketball team to a 72-71 America East victory over Binghamton University at The Events Center in Vestal, New York.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for coach Bob Walsh’s Black Bears (7-24 overall, 3-13 AE), who finished eighth in the conference standings. UMaine must now travel to Burlington, Vermont, to take on No. 1 Vermont (26-5, 16-0 AE) in a 7 p.m. game on Wednesday.
Freshman forward Andrew Fleming of South Paris led the Black Bears with 17 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Austin Howard tallied 14 points, Bernstein posted 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Dennis Ashley added 11 points. Vincent Eze chipped in seven points and six rebounds.
The Black Bears shot 54 percent (14-for-26) from the field in the second half.
UMaine was without leading scorer Wes Myers for the third straight game. He was suspended indefinitely after punching teammate Marko Pirovic in the face, breaking his jaw, in a locker room altercation on Feb. 14 in Orono.
Binghamton (12-19, 3-3 AE), which is the No. 7 tournament seed, received a game-high 26 points, along with nine rebounds, from Willie Rodriguez. John Schurman netted 14 points.
The Bearcats had built a 10-point advantage behind a 9-2 run during the middle of the second half.
The surge started with a Schurman 3-pointer and two Rodriguez free throws, before Fleming hit a layup for UMaine. Binghamton came back with a Rodriguez layup and a Timmy Rose fast-break basket to make it 62-52 with 8:10 remaining.
The Black Bears responded with a 10-2 burst of their own. It included five points from Ashley and was capped by Ilija Stojiljkovic’s dunk that knotted the game at 64-all with 4:27 to play.
The hosts eventual went ahead 67-66 on a Rodriguez foul shot with 1:10 left, but Howard answered with a jumper to give UMaine the lead. Fleming then came up with a steal that led to two Howard free throws at the 32-second mark.
Rodriguez scored from the lane to cut the deficit to two with 11 seconds to play, but Bernstein made two foul shots to help the Bears maintain the upper hand.