The 2009 America East Championship is on the line Saturday when top-seed Binghamton plays host to No. 6 seed UMBC at 11 a.m. in a game which can been seen on ESPN2. It marks the 22nd-straight year that the conference championship game will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2.
A sellout is expected at the Events Center on the Binghamton campus. With a capacity in excess of 5,000, America East is likely to have its second-largest crowd in championship history. The record crowd for a single-game is 5,644 when Northeastern hosted Boston University at Matthews Arena in 1986. That game was the third of four-straight conference championships for the Huskies, who were led by Coach of the Year Jim Calhoun and Player of the Year Reggie Lewis.
The Bearcats enter the game with a 22-8 overall record, the most wins in their Division I history. Binghamton has a 10-game winning streak, the third-longest in the nation. America East Coach of the Year Kevin Broadus leads a talented group which includes second-team all-conference selections D.J. Rivera and Emanuel Mayben, and third-team choice Reggie Fuller, who was also an America East all-defensive pick. Rivera has set the school record for points in a season with 603 and ranks second in America East with 20.1 ppg. Mayben averages 11.7 ppg and 4.5 assists per game. Fuller set a school mark with 209 rebounds for a 7.0 rpg average.
Standing in the Bearcats’ way is the defending America East Champion. Head coach Randy Monroe’s team earned its first NCAA Division I Tournament bid a year ago with an 82-65 win over Hartford in the America East Championship game at Baltimore. Jay Greene won the Reggie Lewis Award, given to the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player while Darryl Proctor was named to the All-Championship team. Proctor, who has earned first-team all-conference honors in each of his two seasons with the Retrievers, leads America East in scoring this season with 20.2 ppg and is third in rebounding with 8.7 rpg. His 627 points are a UMBC single-season record. Greene, a second-team all-conference choice in 2009 after earning first-team honors a year ago, leads the conference with 6.1 assists per game. He also adds 12.9 ppg. Chauncey Gilliam is one of four rookies in America East to average double-figures scoring with 10.9 ppg.
Scott Graham (play-by-play) and former Providence head coach Tim Welsh (color) call the action for ESPN2.
The winner of the America East Championship game receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Binghamton has guaranteed its first postseason appearance as a Division I program. The Bearcats secured a bid to the NIT due to their America East regular-season title, in the event they do not win the championship.