Brown reaches milestone as Danes dominate Binghamton

Albany- UAlbany Head Coach Will Brown reached a milestone in his career Thursday night at SEFCU Arena when his Great Danes squad put up a dominating performance for an 84-65 win, the 250th victory of his career. If you ask him about it though, it wouldn’t seem like much of one.

“Honestly, 251 is going to mean a whole lot more to me than 250,” Brown said postgame Thursday. “Hopefully we can go out and get 251 on Sunday. 251 is going to feel even better.”

Albany was once again led by star sophomore guards Joe Cremo and David Nichols in the victory, as Nichols had a game-high 25 points to go with five assists in only 25 minutes while Cremo had 22 points of his own to go with six assists and five rebounds. The two combined to shoot 18-of-25 (72%) from the field and 6-of-9 (66.7%) from three.

Travis Charles once again had a solid game for the Danes, as the Brookyln native had 14 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes. Charles also had a hot hand shooting wise, going 7-of-1o from the field on the evening. Charles took advantage of Binghamton’s defensive strategy all night, as the Bearcats played a 2-3 zone with a hint of 1-3-1.

“He’s a zone buster,” Brown said of the redshirt junior. “Travis’s eyes light up when they play zone. When we see zone right away we get Travis in the game.”

“It’s all about reading the defense and my teammates just did a really good job just moving the ball and finding me,” Charles said. “I just try to make myself as available as possible in the weak spots. I was fortunate enough to get some good shots.”

Albany, all around, was sizzling from the floor from the beginning, shooting 70.8% in the first half, the highest percentage the Danes have shot in a single half this season. Albany finished at 64.8% and 58.3% (7-of-12) from three point range on the evening, a surprising statistic since the Danes were without Dallas Ennema, their top three point shooter, who missed the game with an intestinal infection.

Brown wouldn’t miss the opportunity to have some fun when talking about the team’s celebration in the locker room to commemorate the achievement.

“I got some imaginary handshakes,” he said and then winked a few times.

The imaginary handshakes was an direct nod to Siena coach Jimmy Patsos, who brought plenty of national attention to his actions after Patsos walked toward the vacated Rider bench and shook hands with air because Rider had chose to leave the court right after the buzzer sounded and to not shake hands with the Saints following a heated ending of their game earlier this week.

Albany, now 11-9 and 2-3 in the America East, will look to continue their mini two game winning streak when they host the University of Maine Black Bears at SEFCU Arena at 2 PM on Sunday.