With 12 seconds left and down 10 Jay Greene saw the light at the end of the tunnel in his college basketball career and walked off the court once Binghamton got the final possession of the game. The team he had helped lead to its second consectuve America East Conference Championship game followed him.

Seniors Greene and Darryl Proctor led the way, followed by a tearful Chauncey Gilliam and the rest of the sixth seeded Retrievers who made a run at the conference championship for the second straight year, but unlike last season in Baltimore, were unable to take the crown.

At the conference tournament in Albany, all Greene and Proctor said is they do not want their college careers to end and they were stretching it as far as they could. In the championship game against top seeded Binghamton their amazing careers ended with a 61-51 loss in a game that Binghamton was just the better team in.

Though UMBC was down by nine for the majority of the second half they were never completely out of the game as Binghamton never took a knock out shot. Although neither team shot well from the field in the game as Binghamton shot 42.1 percent and UMBC shot just 37.9 percent, the difference was turnovers. UMBC averaged just 9.5 turnovers all season with just seven in the first two games in the conference tournament before the final 30 seconds against Albany where they coughed up three, but against Binghamton they turned the ball over 17 times, 12 of which came in the first half.

“It was more just self-inflicting and what we did to ourselves,” Greene said. “We were prepared and knew they would switch their defenses. They just played a good game.”

Following the game both Greene and Proctor were selected to the all-tournament team for the second year in a row. Greene finished the game with seven points, four rebounds, and four assists while Proctor finished with his 13th double-double of the season, 42nd of his career, with 12 points and 11 rebounds, ending his career with 40 straight games in double figures including every game this season. Proctor also finished the season with a UMBC record 639 points topping Rick Moreland’s 610 set in 1982-83 season, and top in minutes with 1,269, 43 more than Greene’s record from a season ago.

Meanwhile, Greene finishes his career top in assists (683), minutes (4215), games played (122), third in three point field goals (240), and fourth in steals (157) in UMBC history.

Joining Greene and Proctor on the all-tournament team were three Binghamton players including tournament MVP D.J. Rivera, Reggie Fuller, who did not miss a field goal in all three games (15-15 from the field), and Emanuel Mayben.

Even with the loss, two Retrievers showed the team can be good next year even with the loss of two of the greatest to ever wear a UMBC uniform. Sophomore Richard Flemming recorded a double-double with a team high 14 points and 11 rebounds while freshman Chauncey Gilliam recorded 10 points and five rebounds.

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” UMBC coach Randy Monroe said. “Hats off to Binghamton and the job they did. They were just great.”