For Immediate Release: January 15, 2007
Contact: Anthony G. Naglieri (sports@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-2956

Gordon's last second layup lifts BU men's basketball over Hartford 57-55
Junior co-captain hits high bank with one-tenth of a second left

Box Score

WEST HARTFORD, CONN. - Junior guard Mike Gordon (Plainfield, N.J.) converted a high-bank layup with one tenth of a second left to give visiting Binghamton (9-9, 2-4 America East) a 57-55 victory over Hartford (9-8, 3-2 AE) in a men's basketball game Monday night from Chase Family Arena. Remarkably, Gordon's final-second heroics were an exact repeat of last January 19, when his buzzer-beating layup stunned the Hawks by the same score on the same court.

"We just tried to get Mike the ball with a full head of steam," head coach Al Walker said of the final play. "He pushed it hard into the seam and rose up that running right-hander that he has."

Earlier, Gordon drained both ends of a 1-and-1 to give the Bearcats a 55-52 lead with 26 seconds left. But after senior guard Steve Proctor missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 20 seconds left, the Hawks came downcourt and nailed a game-tying three-pointer with 0:8 left. After a Binghamton timeout with six ticks left, Gordon got the ball and drove down the right side of the lane before lofting his familiar high-bank shot. The ball rattled around the rim before falling as the horn expired.

"It was a big win for us," Walker said. "We did some good things defensively - we battled wonderfully. It was very important for us to get back on the positive side."

Binghamton's defense held Hartford without a field goal for a 12-minute stretch that spanned both halves. The Bearcats, who held a 29-27 lead at the break, went on a 10-0 run early in the second half to build a nine-point cushion.

Trailing 38-29, freshman guard Joe Zeglinski ignited a 13-1 Hartford run to give the Hawks a 45-41 advantage with under nine minutes left to play. BU came right back with a 12-4 run of its own, punctuated by a two-handed slam from junior forward Giovanni Olomo (Yaounde, Cameroon) off a terrific feed from classmate Richard Forbes (Far Rockaway, N.Y.)with 1:57 to play.

Sophomore guard Jaret Von Rosenberg nailed a three-pointer with 1:08 remaining and then the teams traded turnovers in the final 40 seconds before Brian Glowiak drained a three at the top of the key with eight seconds remaining to even things at 55-55 and set the stage for Gordon's dramatic deja vu.

Forbes led Binghamton with 12 points. Senior guard Steve Proctor (Largo, Md.) and Gordon added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Freshman forward Lazar Trifunovic (Belgrade, Serbia) added nine rebounds and six points.

After shooting 35.8% over its last three contests, Binghamton got off to a strong start, connecting on 10 of its first 15 field goal attempts and converting 52% for the half.

Hartford was equally as impressive at the onset, converting nine of its first 18 tries, before closing the half by missing nine of their final 10 attempts.

Von Rosenberg and Joe Zeglinski tallied 16 points apiece to pace Hartford.

Binghamton returns home to take on New Hampshire on Thursday at the Events Center.

NOTES:
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak...BU is now 5-6 in the all-time series against Hartford, including a 2-4 mark at Chase Arena…Gordon has now started 61 consecutive games. He also has now recorded at least one assist in 52 straight games...Hailey is 19 points (981) from becoming the 17th member of BU's 1,000 point club and the first at the DI level...The win is Binghamton's 75th at the DI level and 556th overal in school history.