SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Senior Trahmier Burrell (Albany, N.Y.) netted a game-high 27 points including the game-winning basket with less than a second remaining to help lead American International College past Franklin Pierce University, 88-86, in Northeast-10 men's basketball action Wednesday evening from the Butova Gymnasium.
The Jackets improve to 7-8 on the year and 3-6 in conference play while the Ravens drop to 7-7 overall and 4-5 in NE-10 tilts.
Down 83-70 with 4:26 to play the Ravens used an 11-0 run to pull the score to 83-81 after a trey by sophomore Asante Sandiford (Boston, Mass.) at the 2:25 mark. Junior Donte Gittens (Hartford, Conn.) ignited the spurt with a traditional three-point play and senior Jacob Jacquo (New Britain, Conn.) added five points during the streak for FPU.
The teams then traded free-throws off empty possessions leading to an 86-83 lead for AIC with under a minute to play and the ball with a full 30 on the shot clock. Burrell then missed a lay-up and Gittens came back the other way to drain one from behind the arc for the 86-86 tie with 28.5 seconds remaining.
Coach Andy Burkholder then drew up the perfect play as junior Juwan Moody (Pontiac, Mich.) held the ball until seven seconds remained on the clock, he then drove and dished to Burrell on the block who drew a double-team, but he still spun and hung in the air catching nothing but net on the way down for the dagger with 0.4 seconds remaining.
AIC started hot from the field early, paced by a couple deep three's from senior Cameron Dobbs (Albany, N.Y.) they used a 13-2 run to jump out to a 15-7 lead at the 14:53 mark of the opening half.
The Jackets used that momentum to take a double-digit lead a few minutes later and they kept it that way for the majority of the opening 20 minutes even stretching things to 14 after freshman Jayvon Pitt-Young (Portland, Maine) was true from distance at the 10:39 mark for the 27-13 advantage.
American International then used a modest 14-7 run to close the half leading 49-35.
Coming out of the locker room AIC kept the offense rolling as they increased their lead 64-46 after back-to-back traditional three-point plays by Dobbs and Burrell at the 13:26 mark.
Burrell added 10 boards for the double-double while Dobbs scored 20 and Moody added 17. Sophomore Mike McDevitt (Cumberland, Maine) paced the Ravens with 23 points as Gittens added 16.
Both teams shot relatively well with the Jackets turning in 44.6 percent (25-for-56) and Pierce 41.7 percent (30-for-72) while the visitors held the slim 38-34 edge on the glass.
AIC next welcomes Bentley University to the Butova for a 3:30 p.m. tip on Saturday afternoon.
