Albany, N.Y. – The UMBC men's basketball team pulled out a 68-65 victory over the UAlbany Great Danes in comeback fashion on Saturday evening at Broadview Center. The win lifted the Retrievers into a three-way tie for first place in the America East standings along with Vermont and NJIT.

Junior guard Ace Valentine led three Retrievers in double-figures with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three-point territory.  Graduate student guard DJ Armstrong Jr. added 13 points (3-for-8 treys) and a team-high four assists, while sophomore forward Caden Diggs chipped in with ten points in 24 minutes off the bench.  Junior forward Jose Roberto Tanchyn corralled a team-high ten boards, scored nine points, and came up with a team-high three steals.

UMBC (13-8, 6-2 AE) trailed 63-57 with just 3:50 remaining but outscored the hosts by an 11-2 margin to close out the contest.

Armstrong Jr. drilled a pull-up trey from the right wing with 3:38 remaining to slice the lead to three, 63-60, and Diggs followed with a turnaround jumper in the lane after a UAlbany miss to make it 63-62 thirty-eight seconds later.

Armstrong Jr then came up with a steal and found graduate student forward Josh Odunowo, who was fouled with 2:25 on the clock. Odunowo misfired on the first attempt but brought the Dawgs even at 63-63 after swishing the next attempt.

UAlbany (7-16, 3-5 AE), who led 28-27 at the break, took its final lead of the game, 65-63, when forward Isaac Abiddie converted a driving layup at the 2:09 mark. However, Tanchyn hit a free throw on the next trip down, and Odunowo came up with a big rejection with forty-four seconds left.  Valentine eventually was fouled with twenty-five seconds left and calmly converted two free throws to give the visitors a 66-65 edge.

Tanchyn came up with a critical steal with 14 ticks left, drew a foul, and made two from the charity stripe to make it 68-65.

Without a timeout, guard Amir Lindsey misfired on a game-tying three, and Armstrong Jr. grabbed the rebound as the buzzer sounded.

UAlbany held a 21-12 lead, its largest of the game, with 9:05 left in the opening stanza.  However, UMBC eventually came all the way back to even the score at 25-all after Diggs made a pair of free throws with 1:22 left.

After trailing by five early in the second half, the Retrievers surged to a 49-45 lead after Armstrong Jr. drained a three-pointer with 11:22 left in the contest. But UAlbany embarked on an 18-8 burst to grab the 63-57 lead late in the contest.