Campbell key in quarterfinal win

BOSTON – For the last two weeks, Joe Campbell has been saddled with a lot of pain. Saturday afternoon, the junior swingman was pain-free. … Well, from his perspective anyway.

Campbell, who missed three games with a broken nose, was a major pain for the No. 5 Binghamton Bearcats, who really never had an answer for the University of Maine’s do-a-little-bit-of-everything player as he and point guard Eric Dobson led them to victory.

The guard-forward from Bangor scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Dobson had a game-high 22 points and nine assists in the No. 4 Black Bears’ 79-77 overtime America East conference quarterfinal win at Walter Brown Arena.

“The bottom line was we had to take away [Mark] Flavin, we had to contain Dobson, and we had to contain [Kevin] Reed. If we could stop two of those guys, we felt we had a chance to win,” said Binghamton coach Al Walker. “We stopped two of them, but Dobson hurt us and we knew Joey is an X-factor, but we didn’t know if he was good enough to step up and do the job, and he was. That’s why our season’s over and theirs isn’t.”

Actually, it was a bit more than that. Reed scored 10 of his 16 points after the first half, but a costly foul called on the Bearcats in the game’s final minute helped, too.

With 57 seconds left in overtime and the Bearcats up 75-73, BU guard Billy Williams was called for a foul – his fifth – on Dobson. Star center Nick Billings (20 points, nine rebounds, four blocks) was so incensed by the call, he slammed the ball into the court so hard it bounced at least 20 feet in the air. That drew a technical foul. Reed hit both of those shots and then Dobson hit both of his to make it 77-75.

The Bearcats tied it 20 seconds later on Joel Casseus’ put-back. Maine played for the last shot and Dobson missed with five seconds left, but Campbell ripped the rebound away and was fouled. He hit both shots with four seconds left. A timeout later, BU was unable to get a shot off because the ball bounced out of bounds on a mad dash up the court as time expired.

BLACK BEARS 79, BEARCATS 77 (OT)

Binghamton (14-16) Maine (19-9)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Hermenier 2 6 1 2 6 Dobson 5 12 11 14 22

Hailey 3 10 4 4 11 Flavin 4 6 9

Carter 6 12 5 7 20 Reed 5 13 16

Williams 2 6 0 0 6 Campbell 7 18 3 4 20

Billings 8 15 4 9 20 Markwood 2 5

Watson 0 0 0 0 0 Hadjisotirov 0 0

Casseus 1 2 0 0 2 Petkus 1 2 5

White 2 4 0 0 4 Dubois 0 1 2

Adediran 3 8 2 2 8 Ahvenniemi 0 0

Totals 27 63 16 24 77 Totals 24 58 23 29 79

Binghamton 31 68 77

Maine 37 68 79

3-pt. goals ? Binghamton (7-21): Hermenier 1-2, Hailey 1-6, Carter 3-6, Williams 2-5, Casseus 0-1, White 0-1; Maine (8-26): Dobson 1-4, Reed 2-6, Campbell 3-10, Markwood 1-3, Hadjisotirov 0-1, Petkus 1-2