Freshman guard Carletta Bennett’s desperation 3-pointer with five seconds left in the game thwarted a furious rally by the University of Maine and enabled Binghamton to hold off the Black Bears 62-57 at the Events Center in Vestal, N.Y. on Saturday afternoon.
Binghamton improved to 14-6 overall and 6-1 in America East while UMaine fell to 10-11 and 5-3.
UMaine, which trailed by 14 with 1:27 left in the third period, pulled to within two when Sarah Talon hit her second consecutive basket with 36.7 seconds remaining in the game.
The Bearcats ran the 30-second clock down to the last second when Bennett nailed her clinching 3-pointer off a Yanniah Boyd pass.
The referees conducted a video review to see if she had released the shot before the shot clock expired and ruled that she had.
It was just her ninth 3-pointer of the season in 26 attempts.
UMaine built a 10-point lead in the first quarter and led 22-13 at the end of the period but the Bearcats outscored UMaine 44-22 over the second and third quarters to take a 57-44 advantage into the fourth period.
But the Black Bears outscored Binghamton 13-2 to climb within two before Bennett hit her three.
Adrianna Smith and Talon each had four points, Lala Woods hit a three and Asta Blauenfeldt hit a fast break layup during the flurry with Meghan Casey’s jump shot with 5:10 remaining representing the only Binghamton points before Bennett’s three.
Casey’s basket gave Binghamton a 59-51 lead.
Junior forward Kendall Bennett paced the Bearcats with 14 points and 12 rebounds an junior guard Bella Pucci also had 14 points to go with five rebounds.
Carletta Bennett finished with 13 points and six rebounds, senior guard Casey had nine points, two rebounds and three assists and senior guard Kaia Goode produced eight points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals before being helped off the court with a leg injury with 45 seconds remaining in the contest.
Fifth-year senior forward Smith poured in a game-high 29 points and she also had seven rebounds and three steals. Senior guard Talon had 10 points and two rebounds, freshman guard Woods had nine points, five rebounds and two steals and senior guard Blauenfeldt had seven points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Binghamton shot 40.7 percent from the floor and 31.3 percent from beyond the 3-point arc while UMaine shot 44.9 and 24 percent, respectively.
Binghamton outrebounded UMaine 38-24 including a 12-2 edge on the offense boards which led to a 13-2 margin in second-chance points.
“We decided we didn’t want to play defense for two quarters and you can’t take quarters off,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon in a post-game interview with Black Bear Sports Properties/Van Wagner play-by-play broadcaster Don Shields after the game.
“Hopefully, we’ll learn from this,” added Vachon, whose Black Bears don’t play again until they host UMass Lowell next Saturday at 1.
Binghamton will travel to Bryant (R.I.) for a 6 p.m. game on Thursday.