After suffering its worst loss of the season against Vermont last weekend, the Binghamton men’s basketball team looked to end its four-game losing streak against the UMass Lowell River Hawks. However, struggles on the defensive end relegated the Bearcats to another two weekend losses, dropping Saturday’s game 92-78 and Sunday’s 77-67.

“It gets difficult when a young team is not seeing the rewards or tasting winning, but I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Binghamton head coach Tommy Dempsey. “I thought overall we gave a great effort. The record says what the record says but I thought we had great fight today.”

After Sunday’s loss, the Bearcats (1-12, 1-9 America East) now sit alone at the bottom of the AE standings. The last time the Bearcats started with a 1-12 record was during the 2014-2015 season, in which the team finished with a 6-26 record. The last time BU opened conference play with a 1-9 record was 2017-18, when the team started 1-10 and finished 2-14.

“It has been a tough year not having [senior center Thomas Bruce] for so long,” Dempsey said. “[We] are buried in the standings and now it comes down to trying to be the best team [we] can be in the next 5-6 weeks and finishing the season strong.”

One positive note from this weekend’s game was Bruce’s return to action on Sunday after missing the past nine games due to concussion symptoms. Coming off the bench, Bruce contributed six rebounds and three blocks in 19 minutes of play.

“It was nice to see [Bruce] get out there,” Dempsey said. “He hasn’t played in so long. Our goal now is to keep him healthy and try to become a tough team to beat the rest of the way.”

Playing without Bruce in Saturday’s game against UMass Lowell (6-8, 5-5 AE), the Bearcats got off to a rough start as they trailed 15-4 within the first five minutes of action. Behind by as many as 14 points in the first half, the Bearcats began to find some offensive form led by sophomore forward George Tinsley, who converted a 3-pointer to bring the Bearcats within five points of the River Hawks. Despite this effort, the Bearcats found themselves down 47-37 at halftime.

“We found some good flow on the offensive side but our defense wasn’t able to consistently hold up and we were chasing them from behind,” Dempsey said.

In the second half, the Bearcats struggled to contain the River Hawks’ offense as they were down by as many as 19 points, trailing 68-49 midway through. The Bearcats stormed back with a 21-8 run to bring themselves within six points, 76-70. The Bearcats managed to put another eight points past the River Hawks, scoring a season-high 78 points in the game with five players scoring in double figures. Of the five players, sophomore forward Tyler Bertram and sophomore guard Brenton Mills led the way for Binghamton, scoring 20 points and 15 points respectively. However, the Bearcats struggled to hold up on the defensive end, losing 92-78 after conceding another 16.

“Our offense is ahead of our defense,” Dempsey said. “When you give up 92 points, it will be hard to win.”

Contrary to Saturday’s game, the Bearcats started Sunday’s game on the right foot as they led the River Hawks 15-10 early on. However, UMass Lowell went on a 12-2 run to take a 22-17 lead against the Bearcats midway through the first half. From that point forward, both teams exchanged mini runs with five lead changes. Despite limiting the River Hawks to 42 percent shooting, the Bearcats found themselves trailing 42-35 at halftime.

“We were really focused on getting off to a good start,” Dempsey said. “A couple of games we lost recently we’ve been behind right from the jump. It was a real focus during shootaround that we had to play better defense early in the game and I thought we did that.”

In the second half, the River Hawks extended their lead on the Bearcats to as much as 16 points. However, sophomore guard Hakon Hjalmarsson provided a spark for Binghamton, scoring 10 points in under 10 minutes to help the team pull within seven points. However, the River Hawks held on to defeat Binghamton 77-67. In the game, Mills scored a team-high 16 points with four other Bearcats players scoring in double digits. In both games, five players scored in double digits.

“Back to back days with five guys in double figures was a really positive sign,” Dempsey said. “When [Bruce] gets back, [he’ll] be another guy that can get in double figures. I think the team has good balance.”

After losing both weekend games to UMass Lowell, Binghamton will next face off against Maine next weekend on Saturday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 24. Tipoff for the opening matchup is set for 1 p.m. at Memorial Gym in Orono, Maine.