Head coach Mark Macon sat with his head in his hands.
With two and a half minutes left to play on Saturday night, his team trailed Army by more than 20 points. If it hadn’t seemed like it before, it sure looked then like it could be a very long season for the Binghamton University men’s basketball team.
The Bearcats fell to Army 70-50 at the Events Center, sinking to 0-6 on the year.
While Binghamton struggled all night to find its offensive rhythm, the Black Knights (3-5) found theirs early and never looked back, shooting 54.2 percent from the field and knocking down 11-of-19 from behind the arc.
The Bearcats, meanwhile, managed 33.3 percent from the field, connecting on 30 percent of their 3-pointers.
“We gotta just keep fighting, keep fighting and we’ll get wins,” Macon said. “It’s just tough right now with the team we have and trying to mix and match guys and put guys in the right place. It’s just all in practice, all in practicing, and working at it to perfect it, and it’ll work. It’s going to work.”
After winning the tip, BU got on the board first with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Robert Mansell. But Army quickly responded with a seven-point run, highlighted by a three from sophomore guard Josh Herbeck that put the Black Knights ahead.
Though the score remained tight, the Bearcats would not see the lead again for nearly 10 minutes when a goaltending call on Army put BU up by one point with 9:40 remaining in the first half. The teams exchanged the lead once more before BU regained the advantage on a 3-pointer from freshman guard Chris Longoria. The lead was short-lived, however, and would be Binghamton’s last of the game.
With just under eight minutes left to play in the first, yet another Army three, this time from junior Jason Pancoe, sparked a 15-1 Army run that spanned over the next seven minutes and worked to effectively put the game out of the Bearcats’ reach.
The rally featured three 3-pointers from three different Army players, and the Black Knights entered halftime leading Binghamton, 36-23.
“Some days it’s just not there offensively, but it has to be there defensively, and today it wasn’t there defensively [either],” Macon said. “We couldn’t stop them.”
Army carried its offensive momentum into the second half, improving its first-half field goal percentage of 50.0 percent to 60.0 percent in the second half, and going a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range.
The Black Knights were led by junior forward Ella Ellis, who tallied 20 points and went 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Senior guard Julian Simmons came off the bench and contributed with 14 points, all of which came in the first half.
The Bearcats were unable to pull within more than 11 following halftime, despite shooting at a 45.8 percent clip in the second half. BU shot a dismal 24.2 percent from the field in the game’s opening 20 minutes.
Mansell and freshman forward Jabrille Williams led the Bearcats with 12 points apiece, and freshman Ben Dickinson tallied a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Dickinson, who had been averaging over 15 points per game prior to Saturday’s match, had just one point through the game’s first half.
With junior guard Jimmy Gray starting the game on the bench for the first time this season, Mansell and sophomore forward Alex Ogundadegbe were the team’s only returners on the court for BU at tip-off.
Macon acknowledged the challenge of having such a young team, one with no seniors and eight newcomers, but said that the team’s youth should be no excuse and, realizing his team’s potential, expects more.
“Don’t think that these guys don’t give me effort, they do give me effort. I just want more,” Macon said. “I want all-out, tail-busting effort … I need guys diving around on the floor, I need guys taking charges, I need guys talking to each other, screaming at each other if they don’t do the right thing. That’s what I want.”
The Bearcats, still in search of their first win, are scheduled to take on Bucknell University (5-4) tomorrow night. The Bison reached the NCAA tournament last season carrying the No. 14 seed.
“We have to move on from [Saturday’s game against Army] but we can’t forget how it feels and we don’t wanna have that feeling again,” Mansell said. “So I think if we just put forth our 100 percent effort on Tuesday we’ll be OK. We just need to move on from this game.”
Tip-off for tonight’s game against Bucknell is set for 7 p.m. at the Events Center.