PROVIDENCE – After Cane Broome tied the game at 72 with a three-pointer with 52 second remaining, a late layup by Brown's Tavon Blackmon put the Bears up two with thirty two seconds left, and Brown eventually held on for a, 79-76, over Sacred Heart on Sunday afternoon at the Pizzitola Sports Center. Broome had a game 23 points on 9-15 shooting, while Evan Kelley added 17. The loss drops SHU to 6-6. For the Bears, Leland King led four players in double figures with 19 and added a game-high nine rebounds, to help Brown win its sixth game in its last seven to improve to 7-6. 

Following Blackmon's late layup, Sacred Heart had an opportunity to tie the game at 74 when Broome went to the line for a one and one. He would miss the front end and the ball would go back to the Bears after the rebound went off of a Pioneer player. On the ensuing inbound, Cedric Kuakumensah found a streaking King, who went the length of the court for a dunk to put Brown up four at 76-72 with 16 second remaining. Sacred Heart answered with two foul shots from Tevin Falzon to pull within two with six second left.

At the line up two with a chance to ice the game, Blackmon missed the first before eventually making the second to put the Bears up 77-74 with five seconds left on the clock. Brown would choose to foul Phil Gaetano instead of letting him get off a three-pointer with two seconds left. After making the first, Gaetano attempted to intentionally miss the second, but instead banked it in to cut the lead back to one. After two made foul shots by Blackmon pushed the lead back to three, a Falzon half-court effort would not fall.

Both teams turned the ball over 18 times, while SHU outscored the Bears, 24-16, off of turnovers, and, 21-16, in the fast break. Sacred Heart shot 46 percent (29-63), while Brown shot 48.3 percent (28-58) from the floor. The Bears held an 18-11 advantage in free throws made and a slight, 35-34, edge on the glass.

Trailing by three, Sacred Heart came out of the locker room quickly, scoring seven of the first eight points to take a 44-41 lead, its first since the first minute of the first half, after a Kelly triple just 2:28 into the half. Brown answered with a 9-2 spurt to regain its lead and go up 50-46 with 14:57 left in the game.

Sacred Heart responded with a 14-5 run to take its biggest advantage of the game, 60-55, at the 10:32 mark. After Kelley tied it at 55, Gaetano hit a three, followed by a Steve Glowiak reverse layup. SHU held the lead for the next seven and a half minutes, but could not get it higher than five. A King jumper tied the game with 3:04 remaining, and after a Broome jumper to regain the lead, Rafael Maia converted an and-one with 2:33 remaining for the Bears' first lead since the 11:38 mark.  

Gaetano, the NEC leader in assists, dished out a game-high eight assists. Blackmon had eight assists as well. Falzon joined Broome and Kelley in double digits with 13, while De'von Barnett grabbed a SHU-high seven rebounds. Joining King in double digits for the Bears was Maia, Steven Spieth, and Blackmon, who had thirteen points each. Maia also tied King with a team-high nine rebounds.

Brown quickly established a 12-6 lead just under five minutes into the game after a Maia layup. That lead grew to ten halfway through the half after a JR Hobbie three-pointer put the Bears up 22-12 with 10:07 showing on the clock. After Broome cut the lead to 25-19 with a three-point basket at the 8:07 mark, Brown scored five straight to take its biggest lead at 11 after a King trifecta, 6:28 before the break. The lead became 11 again after a King layup one minute later. From there the Pioneers would score nine straight points, five by Broome and four by Kelley, to cut the deficit to two with 3:41 left. The two teams would trade points until two free throws by Blackmon with four second remaining put the Bears up 40-37 going into the break.

Sacred Heart will end its non-conference schedule on Sunday, when it host Yale for a 2 pm tip at the William H. Pitt Center. The Bulldogs are 9-4 this season.