For the third time in the last four games, junior Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben made a clutch play to win the game for Binghamton University’s men’s basketball team.
Lisa Fischoff/Staff Photographer
This time, he did not even shoot the ball when it mattered most.
Instead, with 34 seconds remaining, Mayben found sophomore Chretien Lukusa on a back-door pass for a layup, the final basket in Binghamton’s 60-59 win over host Boston University (14-11, 9-4 AE). The win propelled Binghamton (17-8, 10-3 AE) into first place in the America East and relegated the Terriers to third place.
By virtue of two head-to-head wins over Vermont, the Bearcats control their own destiny with just three games remaining in the regular season. It is the latest point in a season in Binghamton’s Division I history that the Bearcats have an opportunity to win the regular season conference championship.
On Binghamton’s final offensive possession, head coach Kevin Broadus drew up a dribble-drive play for Mayben and his leading scorer D.J. Rivera. Instead, Rivera was double teamed and Mayben found Lukusa open and streaking to the basket.
“I wish I could say I drew it up as it happened, but Mayben made a great play,” Broadus said. “One time he took the shot and made it, at Stony Brook, and this time he shared the game with a teammate. That’s the mark of a good team, that it doesn’t matter who takes the final shot.”
Boston University then had two opportunities to score a game-winning basket.
With Mayben guarding him, Corey Lowe drove to the free throw line and shot a floater with seven seconds left. The presence of Binghamton freshman Kyrie Sutton, who had blocked three shots in six minutes, may have altered the shot, which hit the front of the rim and bounced into a scrum of players under the basket.
A Binghamton player knocked the ball out of bounds, and the Terriers had another opportunity with 5.9 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Boston inbounded the ball from under its own basket to Lowe on the perimeter.
With Mayben guarding him again, Lowe fumbled the inbounds, collected the ball and dribbled to the top of the key — the same spot from which he missed his first attempt. Lowe ball faked, then went up and under Mayben for a jump shot that hit the side of the rim as time expired.
“He’s the one guy on our team that can create off the dribble, and we wanted to have the ball in his hands,” said Boston head coach Dennis Wolff. “We had a real good shot at the end. That’s unfortunately the way it bounced today.”
In the second half, Boston clawed back from a 13-point halftime deficit by clamping down on defense and forcing three shot-clock violations.
Mayben turned the ball over five times in the half, including a 10-second violation and a palming violation in the final minutes. But when Boston took its biggest lead of the game with 4:53 remaining on a Lowe 3-pointer, Mayben answered with a trey of his own to tie the game at 51-51. He also hit two free throws with 1:10 remaining and found Lukusa for the go-ahead bucket to finish with 14 points, six assists and eight rebounds.
“[Mayben] is a big time player,” Broadus said. “You want big time players to fight through the bad plays to make the big plays at the end. None of us are perfect. I trust him because he’s proven that he should be trusted. He’s made big plays at the end of games.”
While Rivera was held slightly under his scoring average with 20 points, he collected 12 boards and more importantly defended Boston’s star guard John Holland for most of the game.
Holland, who averages over 21 points per game in conference play to lead the AE, scored just 11 points on four of nine shooting. He scored 28 points in Boston’s rout of Binghamton earlier in the season.
“The kid burned us the first time and [Rivera] took it personally. He stepped up and played great defense on him,” Broadus said.
Rivera also took control of the huddle in timeouts as Boston made its second half comeback, telling his teammates to pick up their defensive effort.
Binghamton, a poor rebounding team statistically, outrebounded the Terriers 37 to 31, including 24 to Boston’s nine in the first half.
Prior to Saturday, Binghamton had only won once at Boston’s Case Gym in its AE history.
The Bearcats head to Hartford to play the Hawks tomorrow at 7 p.m.