By Max Lederman

The Northeastern men’s basketball team arrived in Vestal, N.Y. Sunday afternoon, just in time for what turned out to be a block party. In front of a sellout crowd, the Binghamton Bearcats (14-11, 9-6 America East) swatted away 13 of the Huskies shots on their way to a 66-54 victory over NU.

The majority of those rejections (10 to be exact) came from their gargantuan center Nick Billings, who broke a school record for blocks in a game.

“Their seven-footer was very good,” NU coach Ron Everhart said. “We didn’t get to the line a lot because he was legitimately blocking our shots, and that’s another reason why we didn’t shoot very well.”

The Huskies didn’t block any shots all game, partially due to having their leading shot blocker, Sylbrin Robinson, in foul trouble throughout the game.

“When Sylbrin isn’t out on the court, we aren’t a shot blocking team,” Everhart said.

Although the Huskies didn’t block any of the Bearcats shots, the game was still very close. The Dogs were within four points with just 1:41 remaining in the game before the Bearcats reeled of an 8-0 run to seal the deal.

Javorie Wilson led NU with 13 points, while Aaron Davis and Jamaar Walker dropped 12 apiece in the losing effort.

The Huskies were boasting a 24-17 lead with 5:07 remaining in the first half before Robinson picked up his third personal foul of the game, which cleared a nice place for him on the bench.

With NU’s top defensive threat off the court, Binghamton went on an 8-0 run to give them a 26-25 lead going into the locker room. The last three field goals of the run — nasty Anthony Green-Billings’ alley-oops — had highlight reel written all over them.

Binghamton outscored NU 40-29 in the second half to give them the 12-point win. The loss brings Northeastern to 14-13 overall for the season and 7-7 in the AE, good for seventh place.

Robinson, who is still trying to get back in shape after missing four games with a dislocated elbow, was the only Husky starter that didn’t score in double figures.

“Sylbrin is really playing hard, but he is coming back from an extremely serious injury and he is pretty much playing with one arm,” said Everhart.

For the third straight game, the Huskies were without their star point-guard Jose Juan Barea, who sat out once again due to NCAA eligibility rules. Barea is set to return to the line-up Wednesday night when the Huskies host Albany. This team has faced adversity all season long, and Sunday was no different.

Although the Huskies outrebounded the Bearcats 45-37, they only shot 34.9 percent from the field.

“We got beat by a team that, right now, is better than us,” said Everhart. “We played good but they played better.”

It has been a rare sight to see all of the regular starters out on the floor for the Dogs this year, and even when they are all there, they haven’t been 100 percent.

“With all of these injuries and things, we have really been undermanned this season,” said Everhart. “I think if we have all of our guys healthy and out on the court, then we have just as good of a chance than anyone does to win the conference tournament.”

Northeastern has two more games left before the America East tournament begins; both of which are home games. The conference standings are tight going into the last week of regular season play, and if NU can muster up two more wins, they could be the third seed in the tourney.

The return of Barea to the line-up and the continued improvement of Robinson give the Huskies a slight advantage Wednesday night when they face eighth place Albany who are currently 3-11.

Sunday’s game against first place Boston University should be a little bit more of a challenge for the Dogs, but after the Huskies victory against the Terriers on Jan. 25, when they rallied back from a 16 point deficit, anything can happen.