Marist Basketball Topples Binghamton in OT

By Mike Ferraro

VESTA – The Marist men’s basketball team defeated Binghamton by a score of 68-65 in overtime in its season opener on Saturday afternoon.

Jordan Jones’ dunk 30 seconds into the game gave the Red Foxes their first two points of the season, and the Red Foxes scored on their first two possessions to jump out to a 4-0 lead.

A basket by Ricardo Wright gave Marist a double-digit lead, 19-9, at the 10:47 mark of the first half.

A three-pointer by Michael Cubbage on the Red Foxes’ final possession of the first half gave the team its largest lead of the first 20 minutes, and Marist took a 34-23 advantage to the locker room.

Braden Bell’s three-pointer with 16:43 to play gave Marist its largest lead at 39-25.
Binghamton stormed back with a 17-3 run over a span of just under six minutes to tie the game at 42 with 10:23 left.

Marist built its lead back to six on three occasions, the last coming on a Bell three with 3:43 left.

Two free throws by Hakim Byrd gave Marist a 60-57 lead in the closing seconds, but Binghamton’s Tyler Bertram sent the game to overtime with a long three as time expired in regulation.

Binghamton’s Brenton Mills scored the first points in overtime on a jumper with 4:20 play, but Victor Enoh tied the game with a basket on Marist’s next possession. With 1:34 to play, Bell’s basket gave the Red Foxes the lead for good.

With Binghamton trailing by one in the closing seconds, Enoh secured a defensive rebound, and then hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to the final margin of three.

Cubbage led three Marist scorers in double digits with 18, followed by Bell with 16 and Wright with 12.

Enoh had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Marist shot 16-for-20 (.800) from the free-throw line, while Binghamton was 9-for-19 (.474).

“Wins are hard to come by,” head coach John Dunne said. “I like how we responded after they tied the game up. Obviously I’m not happy with give up that three (at the end of regulation) … but I loved our resiliency and coming back, and having confidence in the overtime to make some good plays.”