Winning three of their last four, the Binghamton men’s basketball team is back to playing the hard-nosed aggressive defense for which it is known around the conference.

The Bearcats are one of the hottest teams in the league coming into the tournament, behind stellar play from Mike Gordon and Lazar Trifunovic. Thanks in part to other players finally starting to step up, BU has shown it can put some points on the board, too. Whether it’s Steve Proctor, Richard Forbes or Troy Hailey, the Bearcats have a lot of weapons that Boston better be ready for, because this Binghamton team wants a win badly.

I’m not saying Boston doesn’t want it; and we can’t forget its defense is one of the tops in the conference, holding teams to 41 percent shooting, including 32 percent from behind the arc.

But all the pressure is on the Terriers.

Boston is hosting the tournament and lost its last three games to end the regular season. The Terriers also have to live with the fact that the last few AE tournaments have been extremely disappointing for them.

In the past three years, despite always being ranked in the top three, Boston has not managed to get out of the quarterfinals. The last two years it’s lost as the No. 3 seed, and back in 2004 they were eliminated as the host and No. 1 seed.

You don’t think that’s in the back of their minds?

And while Boston has beaten Binghamton twice this year, both by 12 points, the Bearcats are playing their best basketball of the year, and to add a little more pressure, it’s very tough to beat a team three times in one year.

Of Boston’s top six players, four of them are freshmen. In front of a home crowd on a Saturday night in a playoff environment they’ve never been in, cracking under the pressure is a strong possibility.

At home, Boston is averaging 699 people, while Binghamton is used to playing in front of almost 3,500 people at the Events Center. Now move Boston into the Agganis Arena, which holds 6,300 people, instead of its usual Case Gym home and you have a much different atmosphere: the type that Binghamton is used to playing and succeeding in.

The Terriers know this will not be the same Bearcats team they faced earlier in the year. On Feb. 11, Boston lost at New Hampshire by five points, while two weeks later Binghamton went into Durham and blew the Wildcats out by 29.

When the Bearcats are playing their best basketball, which they are now, they are very tough to stop. When you see Binghamton running up and down the floor ‘ fast-breaking, forcing turnovers, draining 3s ‘ there is no shutting down this team’s heart and desire.

The Bearcats played their way out of the cellar of the America East and will continue to prove this weekend why you should never count them out.