March 1, 2008

Box Score

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Richard Forbes scored a game-high 16 points and Mike Gordon added 15 as the Binghamton Bearcats spoiled Stony Brook's Senior Day with a 49-44 victory over the Seawolves in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon. The Seawolves earned the No. 8 seed in the upcoming America East tournament and will take on the ninth-seeded Maine Black Bears in the tourney's opening round on Friday, March 7 at the Events Center in Vestal, N.Y. Game time is set for 7 p.m. The winner of the Stony Brook/Maine matchup will advance to take on top-seeded UMBC on Saturday at noon.

"It's unfortunate we couldn't send our seniors out with a victory today," Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We just weren't able to execute offensively like we wanted to."

Seniors Ricky Lucas (Herndon, Va.) and Mitchell Beauford (Queens, N.Y.) led the Seawolves with 10 points apiece while senior Emanuel Neto (Luanda, Angola) had nine points and nine rebounds in his final game at Stony Brook Arena.

The Seawolves, who honored Lucas, Neto and Beauford before the game, got off to a terrific start, taking an early 7-2 lead just four minutes in on a thunderous dunk from Neto. The Seawolves extended their lead to nine at 15-6 a few minutes later on the strength of a three from Lucas and five straight points from junior Michael Tyree (Somerset, N.J.).

But the Bearcats, playing without leading scorer and rebounder Lazar Trifunovic, then began to clamp down on defense, holding the Seawolves scoreless over the next 7:38 while scoring 10 straight points to cut the Stony Brook lead to one with 5:25 left in the half. Lucas finally broke the drought with 4:23 remaining to put the Seawolves up by three but the Bearcats got a hoop from Reggie Fuller on the other end and took their first lead seconds later on a three from Forbes.

Another Forbes three with 1:05 left pushed the Bearcats lead to five as they went into the half with a 22-17 advantage. Lucas scored a team-high seven points for the Seawolves who shot just 29.2 percent from the field in the first stanza. Forbes paced BU with nine first-half points.

Stony Brook scored the first four points of the second half but the Bearcats once again had an answer, scoring five straight points to take their largest lead of the game at 27-21. The Seawolves would not go away though as sophomore Eddie Castellanos (Somerset, N.J.) scored five straight points to make it a one-point game at 30-29. Junior Demetrius Young (Sacramento, Calif.) hit a jumper seconds later to give SBU its first lead since late in the first half with 12:29 remaining.

Mike Gordon then scored the first of two straight Binghamton hoops to put the Bearcats up by three but Neto grabbed an offensive rebound and got the put-back on the ensuing possession to cut the Seawolves deficit back to one. The Bearcats eventually expanded their lead to six before a Beauford jumper made it 41-37 with 4:05 to go.

A Brandon Herbert jumper made it 43-37 but Lucas would not let Stony Brook go down quietly, hitting a three-pointer with 2:57 remaining to make it a three-point game. But that is as close as the Seawolves would get as Gordon hit a jumper to push the lead to five and the Bearcats held SBU without a point until only seven seconds remained.

Stony Brook outscored BU 20-12 in the paint and scored 15 points off 18 Binghamton turnovers but were held to just 30.5 percent shooting by the Bearcats.