The Binghamton men’s basketball team carried a lead into the locker room for the fourth-straight game on Saturday afternoon against New Hampshire. But, just like in each of the previous two contests, the Bearcats (5-19, 2-9 America East) failed to hold on.
Despite shooting just 30.9 percent overall, the fourth-place Wildcats (14-9, 7-3 AE) outscored BU, 38-32, in the second half to capture a 59-55 victory. The loss was the third consecutive for the Bearcats.
“That’s a tough loss any way you slice it,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to win that thing at the end because I think it would have been a great team win.”
At 43 seconds into the game, the refs blew their whistles, indicating a foul on the Bearcats star, sophomore forward Willie Rodriguez. Twenty-two seconds later, it appeared as if disaster had struck for BU, as Rodriguez fouled UNH senior guard Ronnel Jordan. BU’s leading scorer at 14.2 points per game, was saddled with two fouls just 1:05 into play and was forced to sit.
Rather than crumbling, however, the Binghamton offense found its rhythm. By the time Rodriguez checked back into the game with 12 minutes left in the half, the Bearcats had a 13-11 lead on the Wildcats.
“Honestly, I didn’t think much about it, next man up,” Dempsey said regarding Rodriguez’s foul trouble. “I have confidence in everybody that we’re playing right now.”
Despite Rodriguez picking up his third foul seven minutes later, the Bearcats, led by junior guard Marlon Beck, continued the momentum to carry a 23-21 lead into halftime. Eight different Bearcats recorded at least one point in the half, highlighted by seven from Beck. He finished the contest with a team-high 16 points.
“We had a lot of adversity through the game, a lot of foul trouble,” Dempsey said. “We had to call upon a lot of different guys, and the thing I was most pleased about was that every guy that we checked into the game played as hard as they can.”
With Rodriguez back in the game five minutes into the second half, the Bearcats’ lead grew to as many as nine points. But the Wildcats’ tandem of sophomore forward Tanner Leissner — the reigning AE Rookie of the Year — and junior guard Jaleen Smith slowly chipped into the deficit.
UNH sliced the BU lead to two or fewer five different times before eventually gaining a one-point lead, 51-50, with 3:05 left to play and the Bearcats never regained an advantage in the contest.
Binghamton had a chance to tie, trailing by three with possession of the ball and eight seconds left on the clock. But, New Hampshire elected to foul BU freshman guard Everson Davis before allowing a 3-point shot. Davis, who chipped in 12 points for Binghamton, hit the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Leissner grabbed the rebound for UNH and knocked down a pair of free throws at the other end of the floor to secure the victory.
Leissner finished the game with 21 points — 14 in the second half — while Smith added 16 for the Wildcats.
“Leissner is a good player in this league,” Beck said. “He kind of got himself going a lot of times and he kind of led them. It just comes down to defense down the stretch.”
With three straight losses to Maine, Stony Brook and New Hampshire, the Bearcats now sit in a tie for last place in the AE with UMBC. BU led by one point after the first 20 minutes of play against conference powerhouse SBU and by four points in its game against Maine before eventually falling, 76-51 and 74-63, respectively.
BU returned to action on Monday night against Albany, falling, 69-56, in the Binghamton “Pack the House” game. Despite playing in front of a season-high home crowd of 4,923 and a tremendous performance by sophomore forward Dusan Perovic — who entered the game averaging 5.3 points per game but scored 24 points in the contest — the Bearcats were outscored, 36-25 in the second half en route to the loss. For complete coverage of that game, visit bupipedream.com/sports.