BALTIMORE – UMBC sewed up the No. 2 seed in the America East Conference Tournament by defeating Binghamton, 78-68, in the regular season finale at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.

The Retrievers won their final three games to finish the regular season at 16-13 overall and 11-7 in the league. After a 1-4 start, UMBC won 10 of 13 since January 22. They will host a tournament quarter-final game on Sunday, March 6.

Senior guard Jacob Boonyasith (Grand Rapids, Mich.) scored a career high 20 points to lead four players in double figures. Backcourt mate L.J. Owens (Annapolis, Md.) added 19, while senior forward Szymon Wojcik (Wroclaw, Poland) recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and a career best 10 rebounds.  

The game drew a season-high 2,712 fans as UMBC honored retiring President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski.

UMBC hit 19-of-30 shots from the floor (63.3 percent) in the first half and took a 46-37 lead into the locker room. The Bearcats clawed to within 61-60 with 7:08 remaining, but Boonyasith sunk treys on back-to-back possessions and propel the hosts to their sixth consecutive home victory.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Making his first career start, junior guard Matteo Picarelli (Milan, Italy) matches Binghamton's opening trey with one of his own. But the Bearcats led, 13-10, at the 14:05 mark of the first half.
• Binghamton sunk 8-of-13 shots to open play, but Wojcik came off the bench and converted his first three field goal attempts to keep UMBC within, 18-16, at the 11:39 mark of the period.
• The Bearcats extended the lead to 26-20, but Nathan Johnson's (Adel, Iowa) long trey gave the hosts a 29-26 advantage, forcing a BU time-out at the 6:52 mark of a rapidly-played first half.
• After a slow start, Owens hit five consecutive field goals, netting 12 points in a span of 3:39. The crowd erupted on a Dimitrije Spasojevic (Vrsac, Serbia) dunk, which gave UMBC a 42-32 lead at the 3:43 mark of the period.
• Boonyasith made a tremendous driving layup to restore the UMBC lead to double figures at 54-44 at the 15:33 mark of the second half.
• But UMBC bogged down offensively the visitors made a 8-2 run and cut the deficit to 56-52 at the 12:42 mark. Boonyasith buried UMBC's first trey of the half at the 11:24 mark to give the Retrievers a 59-52 lead.
• The Bearcats charged again, this time cutting the gap to 61-60, but a Boonyasith trey at the end of the shot clock restored the advantage to 64-60 at the 6:33 mark.
• A great look by Boonyasith found Owens, who converted the traditional three-point play and gave UMBC a 70-63 advantage with 4:44 remaining.
• Johnson sunk 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch and UMBC got multiple stops down the stretch to close the regular season with three consecutive wins.     

Johnson added 12 points, while Picarelli scored 7 points and added 4 assists.

Boonyasith hit 8-of-14 shots from the floor and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. He has scored 36 points in his last two outings.

The Retrievers will host either UMass Lowell or NJIT on Sunday, depending on the outcome of the Hartford vs. UML game on Thursday.