UAlbany senior Julie Forster talks about the team's victory over Binghamton at the Big Purple Growl. Forster became the first player in program history to post 1,000 career rebounds and points.

ALBANY - The University at Albany played possibly its best game of the season on Saturday evening.

The Great Danes (6-4, 17-7) led from wire-to-wire and demolished Binghamton 79-46, in front of 4,392 at the 16th annual Big Purple Growl.

Jayson Guerrier scored 18 points, Jacob Iati added 16 and Mike Black finsihed with 13 points.

Brian Freeman and Jordan Reed each scored 14 points for the Bearcats (1-8, 3-19).

ALBANY - Well, so much for that three-game losing streak and all the poor shooting.

The University at Albany had one of its best halves of the season. The Great Danes led throughout the first half and built a huge lead. UAlbany shot 53.6 percent (15-28) from the field, led by Jacob Iati, who scored 13.

Jayson Guerrier came off the bench to add nine for the Great Danes.

Binghamton was led by Brian Freeman and Jordan Reed, who combined for 12 of the team's 14 first-half points. The Bearcats shot just 31.6 percent (6-19) from the floor in the first half.

UAlbany senior point guard Mike Black talks about the team's upcoming game against Binghamton, the 16th annual Big Purple Growl.

J.S. Carras - The Record

ALBANY - The mood in the UAlbany locker room at Patrick Gymnasium, in Burlington, Vt., last Saturday afternoon was one of shock.

The Great Danes were expecting a early-season battle for first place -- what they got was a massacre, a 70-45 loss, and they left with their pride diminished.

“Even Ohio State didn’t beat us like that," said senior point guard Mike Black. "It was shocking, heartbreaking. It was an eye-opener for us that day.”

UAlbany's next league game wasn't a must-win, it was only the third conference game, but that's how Monday's game against Binghamton felt.

“It was a must-win game in reality," said sophomore Sam Rowley, who scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, as the Great Danes bounced back with a 71-59 victory over the Bearcats.

In reality it wasn't a true must-win, but UAlbany needed to get back to its winning ways.

“We just needed to play," said coach Will Brown. "The way we played at Vermont wasn’t the way we’ve played all year long. We let them get in a comfort zone, we never got in any type of rhythm and we played on our heels the whole game. You live and you learn.”

In the midst of winter break, the team has been fully focused on basketball and they found out the best way to bounce back from a crushing defeat.

“The best way to move on from a loss is get a win the day or two days after," said Rowley. 

The Great Danes (2-1, 13-4) face another stiff challenge, when they host Maine (2-1, 7-9) on Saturday.

The University at Albany bounced back from its 25-point drubbing against Vermont, with a solid performance against Binghamton.

The Great Danes knocked off the Bearcats, 71-59, behind 21 points and 13 rebounds from sophomore Sam Rowley, in his first career start.

UAlbany (2-1, 13-4) is now off until Saturday's home game against Maine.

On the other hand, Siena continues to slide.

The Saints (0-4, 2-13) have now lost 11 straight games and are still in search of their first league victory.

After taking a step forward on Friday, in a narrow loss to a very talented Iona team, Siena was blown out on Sunday by Rider. 

The Saints are off until Friday night's game against Canisius. 

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The University at Albany will host the America East women's basketball championship game.

The Great Danes (22-9) defeated Binghamton 58-50, at the University of Hartford's Chase Arena, on Sunday, to punch a spot in the title game. It will be the first time UAlbany has ever played in the championship game, in program history.

UAlbany will host No. 5 seed University of Maryland-Baltimore County (18-14), which upset No. 1 Boston University, earlier on Sunday. The America East championship game will be played at SEFCU Arena, on Saturday, March 10, at 8 p.m.

Junior Ebone Henry led the way for the Great Danes, scoring a game-high 19 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Linsey Lowrie chipped in 11 points for UAlbany.

Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson is now 38-23 in two seasons as the Great Danes head coach.

VESTAL — Will Brown wanted his team to have some momentum heading into the postseason.
Mission accomplished.

The University at Albany finished the regular season with back-to-back victories, defeating Binghamton, 74-63, on Thursday evening.

“We were just trying to win and get the heck out of here,” Brown said. “Everyone who played did a good job.”

The Great Danes (9-7, 18-13) are the No. 4 seed for the upcoming America East tournament, and await to find out their opponent, for the quarterfinal matchup, on March 3.

“Now we head home and try to get healthy for next week,” Brown said.

Junior guard Jacob Iati led the way, for the second straight game, scoring a career-high 22 points and knocking down five 3-pointers.

“Jacob did a tremendous job and I’m really happy for him,” Brown said.

Iati had scored just 53 points all year, but in the past two games, he has added 42 points to his season total.

“He’s just a gutsy kid,” Brown said. 

Gerardo Suero scored 15 points, after missing two straight game, due to shingles. Suero passed Jamar Wilson (2006-07) for the most points by a UAlbany player in a single-season. Suero, who also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, now has 630 points on the season and is averaging 21.7 points per game.

Logan Aronhalt also played a few minutes and scored two points, after missing the last game because of a knee injury that threatened to end his season. 

With key players in and out of the lineup, Brown was pleased with different players stepping in and stepping up.

“I’m just happy for my guys,” he said. “There are a lot of guys who have contributed in the last few games.”

Ben Dickinson led the way for the Bearcats (1-14, 1-27), scoring 21 points, while Taylor Johnston added a dozen.

Binghamton cut the lead to single digits late, but didn’t have enough offense to pull even.

“They’ve played hard all year long,” Brown said, of the Bearcats. “They were coming off a big win, so I knew that they would play hard.”

UAlbany finishes the regular season with two more wins than they had last season, when they finished 16-16.

“Anytime you can go out on the road, this late in the year and get a win, we’ll take it,” Brown said.

J.S. Carras/The Record

It's hard to believe, but this game marks the regular season finale for the University at Albany.

It feels like just yesterday, I was driving out to Syracuse for the team's second game, against Brown and then Syracuse, the next evening.

The season goes quickly for sure.

UAlbany talked before Wednesday's practice like they wouldn't overlook Binghamton, especially after the last meeting, which was very close.

The Bearcats are also coming off of their first victory of the season, so it'll be interesting to see how they come out to play, since they haven't played following a victory all season.

UALBANY AT BINGHAMTON

Where: Events Center (5,134), Vestal
When: Tonight, 7 p.m.
Radio: WOFX 980-AM (Rodger Wyland)
Internet: ESPN3.com
Last Meeting: UAlbany 74, Binghamton 68, at SEFCU Arena, Albany, on Jan. 25, 2012 — UAlbany leads the all-time series 59-29
Records: UAlbany (8-7, 17-13) Binghamton (1-13, 1-26)

Probable Starters
UALBANY

No, Player, Pos., Yr., Ht., Ppg
0, Jacob Iati, G, Jr., 5-10, 3.5
10, Mike Black, G, Sr., 6-0, 13.4 
20, Gerardo Suero, G, Jr., 6-4, 22.0
30, Jayson Guerrier, G/F, Jr., 6-4, 6.2
21, Blake Metcalf, C, Jr., 6-9, 4.7

BINGHAMTON

No, Player, Pos., Yr., Ht., Ppg
20, Jimmy Gray, G, Jr., 6-0, 7.4 
2, Robert Mansell, G, So., 6-4, 14.3
40, Javon Ralling, F, Jr., 6-6, 3.5 
22, Taylor Johnston, F, Jr., 6-7, 2.3 
14, Ben Dickinson, F, Fr., 6-9, 12.8 

AMERICA EAST STANDINGS

School, Conference, Overall
Stony Brook, 13-2, 19-8
Vermont, 12-3, 19-11
Boston U., 11-4, 15-15
UAlbany, 8-7, 17-13
Hartford, 7-8, 8-20
New Hampshire, 6-9, 12-15
Maine, 6-9, 12-15
UMBC, 3-12, 4-24
Binghamton, 1-13, 1-26

Wednesday’s Scores

Maine 71, New Hampshire 58
Boston U. 73, UMBC 52

Today’s Games

UAlbany at Binghamton, 7 p.m.

ALBANY - By the time Will Brown got into the locker room, Wednesday evening for the halftime break, no more shouting was needed.

The University at Albany trailed winless Binghamton 33-31, but the Great Danes had already been read the riot act...from one of their own.

While Brown was in the hallway talking to his assistants, reserve guard Jacob Iati went up and down his teammates, despite the fact that he only played briefly.

“It was music to my ears," said Brown, who surely would have let his team have it, for trailing a 0-19 team at intermission.

Iati was going bonkers according to Brown, letting his teammates know that they had to turn things around in the second half.

"I don't think anybody on our team, and these guys can disagree with me if they want," Brown said, motioning to Mike Black and Gerardo Suero, "wants to win more than that kid."

Brown said that Iati will be working for him one day because he cares so much about winning and putting the team first.

"He practices like its the national title every day," Brown said. "He wants to win. He tried to help his team win with his halftime message."

Iati's teammates were fine with him taking them to task.

“He's like our rah-rah guy,” said Black. 

Iati has only played 54 minutes this season and is averaging 1.2 points per game, but his effort and heart make him a joy to have on the team.

"You can't get enough guys like that, who just want to win," Brown said.

ALBANY - The University at Albany dodged a bullet on Wednesday.

The Great |Danes trailed at halftime, but surged ahead late and came out with a 74-68 victory over Binghamton at SEFCU Arena.

UAlbany (5-3, 13-9) improved to 8-0 at home and dropped Binghamton to 0-20 on the season.

Gerardo Suero scored a game-high 25 points for the Great Danes, while grabbing seven rebounds and Mike Black chipped in 19 points.

Robert Mansell led the Bearcats with 22 points and Ben Dickinson finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.

UAlbany took the lead for good, with 7:35 remaining, as Luke Devlin scored in the middle of a 10-0 run that put the Great Danes up 61-54.

The Great Danes head to Hartford on Saturday.

ALBANY - This game is one half away from becoming a pretty big story.

Winless Binghamton leads UAlbany 33-31 at halftime.

The Great Danes really struggled shooting the ball, starting 3-for-14 from the field, while the Bearcats made six of its first 10 shots. 

Robert Mansell leads Binghamton with 11 points. The Bearcats actually had their biggest lead of the season, when they led by seven points twice in the first half.

UAlbany is led by Gerardo Suero, who has nine points, while Logan Aronahalt and Mike Black each have eight points for the Great Danes.

Jeff Couch/The Record

The University at Albany men's basketball team returns home on Wednesday evening and they certainly were in need of a home game.

The Great Danes have lost their last two road games and are 7-0 at home this season.

Binghamton doesn't have a win yet this season. They are just one of two teams in the country that can say that (Towson is the other).

“You have to put records aside, especially in conference play," said UAlbany coach Will Brown. "A lot of it has to do with matchups.”

That said, the Great Danes should win this game and they need to start rolling up the wins because the teams at the top (Boston U., Vermont and Stony Brook) all continue to win.

BINGHAMTON AT UALBANY

When: Tonight, 7 p.m.
Where: SEFCU Arena (4,538), Albany
TV: Time Warner-3 (Rodger Wyland, John Quattrocchi)
Radio: WOFX 980-AM (Zach Bye)
2011-12 Records: Binghamton (0-7, 0-19) UAlbany (4-3, 12-9) 
Last Meeting: UAlbany 57, Binghamton 54, at Events Center, Vestal, on Feb. 20, 2011 —
UAlbany leads the all-time series 58-29

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
BINGHAMTON

No./Name    Pos.,    Yr.    Ht.    Avg.
10   Mike Black     G    Jr.    6-0     13.2
2    Logan Aronhalt     G    Jr.     6-3    15.8
20    Gerardo Suero     G    Jr.    6-4     21.3
11    Luke Devlin    F    So.    6-8    6.4
21    Blake Metcalf    C     Jr.     6-9    4.2

UALBANY

No./Name    Pos.    Yr.     Ht.    Avg.     
20    Jimmy Gray     G    Jr.     6-0    6.5
2    Robert Mansell    G    So.    6-4    14.6 
3    Chris Longoria    G    Fr.    6-4    7.5 
33    Omar Richards    F    Fr.    6-8    4.0
14    Ben Dickinson    F    Fr.    6-9    12.3

AMERICA EAST STANDINGS

School    Conference    Overall
Boston U.    7-1    11-11
Stony Brook    6-1    11-7
Vermont    6-2     12-10
UAlbany    4-3     12-9
Hartford    4-3     4-15
Maine     2-5    8-10
New Hampshire    2-5    7-11
UMBC    2-6    3-17
Binghamton    0-7    0-19

Tuesday’s Scores

Boston U. 83    UMBC 48

Today’s Games

Binghamton at UAlbany     7 p.m.
Maine at New Hampshire     7 p.m.
Hartford at Stony Brook     7 p.m.

Jeff Couch/The Record

ALBANY - It was only minutes after Thursday night's game at Vermont, when Logan Aronhalt was overcome with emotion.

How could he not be?

The University at Albany's junior guard had just netted his 1,000th career point and had an ankle that was swelling up after he rolled it in the second half.

On top of that, it was only hours before he would return to Ohio, for the funeral of his grandfather.

“It was definitely a tough week for me," said Aronhalt, before Tuesday's practice.

Aronhalt returned to Zanesville on Friday morning, getting there just in time for the services. 

“Outside of his dad, that was his closest relative to him," said UAlbany coach Will Brown. "He was a basketball junkie.”

Aronhalt, who has started his graduate classes at UAlbany, will be recognized for scoring his 1,000th point before Wednesday's game against Binghamton.

“Scoring 1,000 points is a tremendous honor," he said. "I’m very excited about that. I’d like to thank my teammates and my coaches. They’ve helped me tremendously through the rough times, especially  last week.”

After Aronhalt scored his milestone point, on a 3-pointer from the corner, the Vermont public address announcer made an annoucement at the next dead ball. While Vermont and UAlbany are big rivals, Aronhalt appreciated that gesture.

“I think that shows the respect that we have for each other," he said. "It seems like every time we play, it’s a battle to the end, but I think there’s a lot of respect there and that showed it.”

Aronhalt returned to campus on Sunday evening, but didn't practice Monday because of the ankle and Brown said it would likely be a game-time decision if Aronhalt would suit up.

My guess is you'll see No. 2 out there on the floor for the Great Danes.

ALBANY - This is unquestionably the best that UAlbany has played this season.

There was no second half letdown and the Great Danes pick up their third America East victory of the season by dismantling Binghamton on Thursday night.

The 39-point victory is the largest in program history, breaking the 32-point victory over Columbia in 2007.

It's also the lowest point total in a half (13) and total (42) that UAlbany has allowed to an America East opponent, while a member of the conference.

The 37 points scored by the Bearcats is the lowest point total in their 10-year history.

The Great Danes led by 26 points at halftime and didn't let up, actually extending the lead in the second half.

Mike Black finished with a game-high 15 points for UAlbany, while Tim Ambrose added 14.

The starters spent the final five minutes on the bench.

Mahamoud Jabbi led the Bearcats with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

ALBANY - When was the last time UAlbany had a 30-point lead...in the first half.

The Great Danes played another good first half and Binghamton shot horribly from the field.

The Bearcats shot 4-for-30 (13 precent) from the field and actually made more free throws (5) than shots.

Senior guard Tim Ambrose actually outscored Binghamton 14-13. Mike Black added 11 for the Great Danes, while Luke Devlin finished the half with nine.

The Great Danes shots 12-for-25 (48 percent).

UAlbany's biggest lead was 30, when they led 37-7 with 3:09.

Binghamton actually scored the first basket, when senior Mahamoud Jabbi made a jumper to give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead, 17 seconds into the game.

Binghamton coach Kevin Broadus has filed a racial discrimination suit against the University according to the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin.

Here's a quote from his lawyer.

“No coach in America is placed on leave because of a secondary violation,” said Broadus' attorney Don Jackson with The Sports Group in Montgomery, Alabama. “There is the perception out there right now that he did something wrong of a major nature.”

Broadus, who was named the 2009 America East Coach of the Year, has been on paid suspension since the entire Binghamton program, that he built, went up in flames before the start of this season.

Here's the link.

According to numerous speculated reports, the Binghamton University basketball team will not participate in the 2010 America East Tournament.

The Press & Sun Bulletin is reporting the team might not play and the Burlington Free Press is also speculating.

The America East did not reveal a bracket after Sunday's regular season games had ended and still has released no official bracket.

Apparently Binghamton will slide out of the No. 5 spot and every other team will move up, eliminating a play-in game between UAlbany and UMBC.

That would mean the Great Danes would now play Stony Brook in the quarterfinals at 12 p.m. on Saturday.

Other matchups will be

No 2. Vermont vs. No. 8 UMBC, 6 p.m.
No. 3 Maine vs. No. 7 New Hampshire, 8 p.m.
No. 4 Boston University vs. No. 6 Hartford, 2 p.m.

ALBANY - Director of Basketball Operations and former UAlbany player Brent Wilson turned to coach Will Brown following Thursday's 62-57 loss to Binghamton and told him that wasn't a UAlbany effort.

“We never got out-toughed and outrebounded like that ever,” said Brown, recalling what Wilson said to him.

It wasn't a good game by many accounts for the Great Danes, who were coming off their best offensive performance of the year against Yale.

“I was surprised with how poorly we hit the glass and how poorly we blocked out,” said Brown.

UAlbany was outrebounded 41-28 by the taller, but smaller (in terms of depth) Binghamton squad.

Brown called it "ridiculous" and said he's never seen that type of disparity in rebounding from one of his teams.

“To me, you can take all the technique in the world and throw it in the garbage, rebounding is toughness and you need to be a ball-getter,” Brown said.

Brown was so disappointed that he said his veterans weren't leading and that his best leader is sophomore Billy Allen.

The Great Danes have a lot to work on before Sunday's game against Vermont.

On the other end, not a lot was expected from the Bearcats, who lost six players, including Troy're Emanuel Mayben after an offseason full of turmoil that left the defending conference champions a shell of their former selves.

While they picked up a victory, interim coach Mark Macon stopped short of calling it a statement game.

“It’s only one game,” Macon said. “We play to win one game at a time.”

Macon said it was a good game and he seemed happy to come out with the win.

“They didn’t make shots today, we did,” he said. “They’re a good team, we just, today, did some things better.”

I really liked what Greer Wright brought to the table for Binghamton.

The junior college transfer is long and lean and even handled the ball.

He finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and seven turnovers (way too many).

Mahamoud Jabbi added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Bearcats and Chretien Lukusa, the team's only returning starter from last year, had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Scotty McRae added seven points and 11 rebounds for UAlbany, but shot just 1-for-9 from the field.

ALBANY - A first half that the Great Danes will be sure to want to forget.

The Bearcats have a 11-point lead at halftime.

Moussa Camara, who hit four 3-pointers, leads Binghamton with 14 points.

Mike Black has 10 points to lead UAlbany and he scored eight in a row to really dig the Great Danes out of the depths.

Tim Ambrose has just two points and is 1-for-5 from the field.

*****

It didn't get much better in the second half.

Despite a late barrage of three's from Will Harris, the Great Danes dropped their league opener.

UAlbany will have to bounce back on Sunday against Vermont.