Sophomore Kevin Fitzgerald scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds as the Boston University men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to six games with a 55-53 victory over the State University of New York at Binghamton on Saturday at West Gymnasium.
The Terriers (13-7, 7-1 America East) opened fast out of the gate, building a 10-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game on three field goals from freshman guard Chaz Carr. Fitzgerald’s three-pointer made the lead 22-10 at 9:17, but Binghamton outscored the Terriers 12-2 in the next seven minutes to close the gap to 24-22 with two minutes remaining in the first half. BU led at the break, 27-24.
The Terrier lead grew to seven on three occasions early in the second half until Bearcats guard Anthony Green scored five consecutive points to give Binghamton (7-12, 4-5 America East) its first lead of the game, 43-42, with 8:08 left to play.
BU tied the game and then took the lead on two Fitzgerald layups, and sophomore forward Ryan Butt made a three-pointer from the right side to put the Terriers ahead, 50-45, with just over four minutes to go. Baskets by senior forward Stijn Dhondt and freshman forward Rashad Bell sealed the 55-53 BU win in the final minutes.
BU was helped by poor Binghamton shooting, as the Bearcats made just two field goals in the last eight minutes of the game.
The victory is BU’s sixth straight overall and seventh consecutive win inside the conference.
Fitzgerald was the only player to score in double figures for BU, and his 5-of-6 from the floor tied a career-high for field goals made. Junior forward Billy Collins scored nine points on 3-of-12 shooting while going just 1-of-6 from three-point range. Butt also scored nine points for the Terriers.
Bell continued to impress during his freshman campaign, scoring seven points and grabbing nine boards off the bench.
The Terriers held Binghamton to 32 percent shooting, while the Bearcats only made 9-of-14 free throws. Binghamton was led by junior forward Jeffrey St. Fort, who scored 11 points to go along with eight rebounds. Freshman center Nick Billings scored six points and had seven rebounds in the defeat. The seven-footer also had six blocks in 21 minutes of action.
BU gained a half game in the America East standings on Vermont (15-5, 8-1 America East), who played a non-conference game against the University of Michigan (8-9) on Saturday. The Wolverines beat the Catamounts handily, 75-62.
Next for the Terriers is a conference game against the University of Hartford at Case Gymnasium tomorrow night.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
