This Saturday, for the first time since January 2006, the red hot Binghamton University men’s basketball team will play a home game while in first place.
The Bearcats (10-10, 6-2 America East) are on a season high five-game winning streak and their opponents are the last team to have beaten them, the Hartford Hawks (10-13, 4-4 AE). The Bearcats lost 80-79, thanks to a pair of last second free throws by Warren McLendon Jan. 6 at Hartford.
It will be Binghamton’s first home game since Jan. 19, and first home game of the spring semester.
‘Saturday is one of our biggest games of the year,’ said BU head coach Kevin Broadus. ‘I hope and pray that all our students will be there with all their support.’
Broadus said he was looking forward to seeing the BU Zoo in full force.
‘They’ve given us great support when we were down and out and we were 1-and-whatever,’ he said. ‘I thank them for the support when we were down and now we need them to stay up on top.’
To stay on top Broadus’ boys will need a better defensive effort than they had in the last Hartford game.
The 79 points that the Bearcats scored in Hartford is the third most they scored this season, but it was also the fourth time the Bearcats let up more than 80 points.
Since then BU has allowed scores of 57, 61, 59, 58 and 58. The Bearcats are letting up the fewest points per game in conference play, averaging 61.6 points against. Hartford is on the other end of the spectrum, allowing 75.2 points per game in conference play.
‘The guys are playing together,’ Broadus said. ‘We’re playing as a unit, sharing the game. We’re grinding it out ‘ it’s defense.’
The Binghamton game was the Hawks’ first of the regular season. They went on to beat Boston University in their next game before sandwiching a two-game win streak between a pair of two-game losing streaks.
Hartford fell 81-76 after a second-half collapse to Vermont on Wednesday.
The Hawks are led by McLendon, whose 13.2 points per game ranks 13th in the AE. Michael Turner is their top rebounder and assist-getter, ranking fourth in the conference with 3.28 assists per game.
Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Events Center.
Hartford Quick Facts: Hartford’s 73.5 points per America East game ranks second in the conference, .3 points behind Maryland-Baltimore County ‘ The Hawks rank dead last in AE games in 3-point shooting defense at .433, Binghamton is tops in 3-point shooting percentage shooting at .473 ‘ Hartford averages more assists per AE game, 15.38, than any other team in the conference ‘ Rookie of the Year candidate Morgan Sabia is averaging 11.9 points per AE game for the Hawks, 18th in the conference ‘ The last six games between Binghamton and Hartford have been decided by six or fewer points.