It was appropriate that Armon Harried played the final regular-season game of his college basketball career right near his hometown of Baltimore.
The former Lake Clifton star had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists during Binghamton’s 72-71 win at UMBC on March 5. The Bearcats finished the regular season 15-14 overall and 7-9 in the America East, setting up a date with New Hampshire in the conference quarterfinals on March 9.
Harried began his college career with three seasons at Canisius before closing it with two seasons at Binghamton. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound wing is averaging 11.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists this season heading into his final shot to make a run at the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s been beautiful. I think everything that has happened for me has been beautiful,” Harried said of his five-year college career. “I started at Canisius. Transferring here is probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made — great people, great community, love the school, love the conference. It’s just been a great atmosphere, this college journey, and I can’t complain about anything.”
The latest trip to UMBC marked the third time Harried has played in front of friends and family the past two years with the Bearcats. Binghamton traveled to Maryland and UMBC in 2022-23, but Harried only played against the Retrievers because an injury kept him off the floor for the Terps game. The Bearcats visited Loyola earlier this season, but Harried played just 16 minutes because he got hurt.
This time around, Harried played 39 minutes and made six shots — including two 3-pointers. After each one, his cheering section behind the Binghamton bench was easy to hear.
“It’s beautiful because I know they’ve been with me the whole ride, they’ve been supporting me,” Harried said. “It’s just beautiful to have them be able to witness [me playing], especially my last go-round with this.”
Harried had a storied career at Lake Clifton, capped off by a 35-point effort to take home the Class 1A MPSSAA championship as a senior in 2019. He’s now hoping to end his time at Binghamton with an America East title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament before pursuing a professional career.
All America East playoff games are played at the home gym of the higher seed. Should the Bearcats win at New Hampshire, they’ll play again in the semifinals on March 12. The tournament will be reseeded after the quarterfinals, so it’s unclear what team Binghamton would face.
Binghamton enters the playoffs having won four of its past five games.
“We started off rocky. We had to find ourselves and come together as a team and not fall apart,” Harried said. “I think we did that and that made us closer as a unit. I think that’s what matters coming into this stretch of the playoffs and being together as a team because things aren’t going to be perfect. But if you weather the storm like we did [on March 5], we can make something happen.”
RETRIEVERS LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK: UMBC looked like it was way on its way to winning its fifth game in six contests to end the regular season, but Binghamton slowly cut into a 13-point second-half lead before getting over the hump with less than 30 seconds to play and winning, 72-71.
The Retrievers had a chance to send the game to overtime, but graduate big man Max Lorca-Lloyd only made one of two last-second free throws. Sophomore wing Regimantas Ciunys was supposed to take the free throws, but an injury forced him from the game and the Bearcats chose to put a 58.5 percent free-throw shooter on the line.
UMBC scored four points in the final 5:49 of regulation, all from the line. The Retrievers finished the regular season 11-20 overall and 6-10 in the America East.
“This wasn’t the team I’ve seen for the last month. This looked like our team in early January — the shot selection, the lack of defense,” Retrievers head coach Jim Ferry said. “We’ve worked awfully hard to get right back into everything and it was just disappointing to see that. We kept talking about it. We kept addressing it. Maybe it was their defensive pressure, but I thought we played really poorly. Maybe chalk it up to the youth and immaturity, but that was disappointing.”
UMBC will visit UMass Lowell in the conference quarterfinals on March 9. As usual, the Retrievers will lean on leading scorers Dion Brown (19.0 points per game) and Marcus Banks Jr. (14.8). UMBC will need to win three consecutive games to earn a spot in the Big Dance for the first time since 2018, but first the Retrievers need to solve Lowell. They’ve already lost to the River Hawks twice this year.
“Now it’s a new season,” Ferry said. “The way this league has gone, anybody can beat anybody.”
Photo Credit: David Hague