For Immediate Release: February 20, 2005
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

Binghamton women's basketball defeats Stony Brook 68-66 on Sario layup
Rookie takes fast break feed from Lobach and nets game-winner with 3.5 seconds left

Box Score

VESTAL, N.Y.--- Freshman guard Laura Sario (Espoo, Finland) converted a fastbreak layup with 3.5 seconds left, giving Binghamton (8-15, 7-7 America East) a thrilling 68-66 win over visiting Stony Brook (8-15, 6-8 AE) in an America East Conference women's basketball game on Sunday afternoon from the Events Center.

With the score knotted at 66-66, Stony Brook sophomore guard Mykeema Ford missed an off-balance jumper with 10 seconds left. Freshman guard Nicole Lobach (Hanover, Pa.) pulled down the rebound and raced the length of the floor before feeding Sario with a bounce pass to the right of the lane. Sario banked in the layup - her second field goal in the final 1:53 - and Ford's ensuing desperation three-pointer was off the mark as the horn expired.

"It feels great," head coach Rich Conover said of the win. "We fought and made good plays down the stretch. I thought were very determined on the glass in the second half. I think we have matured as a team. I feel like some of our younger players like Laine (Kurpniece) and Nicole (Lobach) were very key today and obviously Laura (Sario) making the winning basket. On that final play, Nicki was very aggressive with the ball and Laura ran the floor very well."

Junior forward Rachel Laws (Wyncote, Pa.) posted her 16th career double-double with game-highs of 22 points and 12 rebounds and classmate Jen Haubrich (Bow, N.H.) added 10 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Rebecca Lindgren (Oskarshamn, Sweden) scored 11 points, including a key three-pointer with 4:03 left that trimmed BU's deficit to four, 64-60. She added a steal which led to a Sario jumper with 1:53 left.

The Bearcats trailed by eight points, 62-54, with 4:50 to play before rallying for their second straight win. Binghamton ended the game on a 14-4 run.

The Bearcats bridged the halftime break with a 13-0 run to open up a 41-32 lead early in the second half. But the Seawolves used a 15-6 run to tie game at 47-47 and led for nearly the entire final eight minutes until Sario's closing heroics. Binghamton almost let the game slip away at the free throw line, missing nine shots in the second half.

Stony Brook was led by juior guard Jessie Boylan, who netted 19 points - thanks primarily to 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range. Ford added 13 points.

Binghamton next hosts Hartford at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

NOTES
Laws moved into ninth place on BU's all-time scoring list. She has 933 points. Laws produced 20+ points for the ninth time in her career ... Binghamton moved into a tie for fourth place in the America East standings, one game out of third.