Coming off an 89-75 loss to Sacred Heart, the Binghamton men’s basketball team rebounded with a 75-68 victory over Army on Saturday afternoon. BU got off to a strong start in the first half with a strong performance from graduate student guard Symir Torrence. While the Black Knights closed the gap in the second half, the Bearcats knocked down key free throws in the final seconds of the game to seal the victory.

“I just think that [Army], with the way they play and how hard they play all the time — it’s just hard to play against that,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “It’s hard to play teams that just constantly play hard, and that’s what I try to get our guys to understand. If we can play hard and compete all the time, then it’s going to be really hard for other teams.”

After winning the opening tipoff, senior forward Tariq Balogun gave BU (4-3) an early lead, outmaneuvering a Black Knight defender (0-6) and making a turnaround layup. From there, Torrence swished in an open three-pointer from the top of the key, before finding junior guard Tymu Chenery in the paint as BU took a 9-2 lead. A second three-pointer, again from the top of the key, from Torrence, then put the Bearcats up 12-4.

“We don’t look for [Torrence] to be a scorer like that for us every game, but sometimes it calls for that,” Sanders said. “He was aggressive early and he made some shots, which when you make some shots early on, it gives you confidence. We need him on the floor because he runs the team. He puts us where we need to be.”

Not long after, Torrence drove the ball to the rim to give BU a 10-point cushion. In the following two-minute stretch, Army picked up momentum and forced multiple turnovers to make it a four-point game. Soon after, Torrence reentered the game and helped Binghamton regain momentum, nailing a three-pointer and sinking in a turnaround jumper inside on the next Bearcat possession to go up 21-16. BU controlled the half around the rim with 18 defensive rebounds, in comparison to Army’s seven, while also outscoring Army 20 to 10 in the paint. A pair of free throws from freshman forward Gavin Walsh gave BU a 37-25 lead going into halftime.

“We knew Army is a really good rebounding team,” Sanders said. “So we wanted to be able to control the rebounds … some of the thinking was like ‘alright, [graduate student guard Dan Petcash] is not playing tonight. Let’s go with a bigger lineup, so we give ourselves a chance to rebound the basketball.’ I thought we did that for the most part.”

A deep three-pointer from senior forward Nehemiah Benson got BU on the board in the second half to make it 40-28. After the Bearcats extended their lead to as much as 19 points, after Chenery drained two free throws, the Black Knights began to crawl their way back. However, whenever Army cut the BU lead to single digits, the Bearcats’ ability to draw fouls and make free throws shots kept them in front — with Chenery leading the way by going 11-for-14 from the line. The Black Knights pulled within four with less than half a minute to go, but a strong final sequence from Benson, drawing two fouls in the closing seconds and sinking in three free throws, cemented a 75-68 win for Binghamton.

“With nine minutes left we had a timeout, and I just told the guys that we looked like we thought the game was over,” Sanders said. “And then when you do that you give the opponent opportunities and they take advantage of it and it becomes a closer game. We would rather win these games and lose them, so we got to get better at playing a complete 40-minute game.”

Off the strength of his free throw shooting performance, Chenery led the way for BU with his second straight 20-point outing, putting up 23 points. Torrence finished the match with a 20-point performance of his own alongside eight rebounds and six assists, while Walsh bolstered the defense with seven rebounds, two steals and a block in 23 minutes.

BU will hit the road to face off against Colgate on Wednesday, Nov. 29. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, New York.