On Saturday afternoon, the Binghamton men’s basketball team’s defense stifled New Hampshire junior forward Tanner Leissner. Senior guard Daniel Dion, however, scored at will in the Wildcats’ 73-66 win over the Bearcats (9-10, 0-4 America East).
Dion led UNH (11-6, 2-1 AE) with 23 points in 35 minutes on the court, shooting a 58 percent clip from the field, including five of eight from beyond the arc. Junior forward Iba Camara tallied a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Senior guard Jaleen Smith, UNH’s leading scorer, netted 18 points.
For much of the game, BU didn’t put up a fight. UNH jumped out to an early 14-4 lead in the opening minutes, leading by as much as 24. BU has struggled offensively so far in conference play. This trend continued in the first half against the Wildcats, in which the Bearcats shot just 17 percent from 3-point range.
“I thought we came out amped up and ready to play today, but then right off that bat, we missed a couple of layups … we just weren’t playing with a lot of confidence in the first half,” said BU head coach Tommy Dempsey. “On the other hand, New Hampshire played a really, really good first half. When they make threes, they’re hard to guard, and they made threes in that first half.”
BU surged late in the second half, releasing an afternoon’s worth of frustration into UNH’s Lundholm Gymnasium. The Bearcats cut UNH’s lead by 12 points in the last five minutes of play, but still came up short, recording their fourth straight loss.
“We’re struggling some,” Dempsey said. “We’ve lost a few in a row after we got off to a good start to the season, and we’re struggling to find our way. We stayed positive and put some game pressure on them late, but it was just too big of a hole.”
Junior forward Bobby Ahearn led BU with 17 points and eight rebounds. Senior guard Marlon Beck tallied 15 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Timmy Rose added 10 points and led the Bearcats with seven assists.
The Bearcats’ scoring rebounded in the second half, when their clip from the field improved to 56 percent. They also hit 43 percent of their 3-point attempts in the final 20 minutes.
UNH typically plays with a slow pace, ranking No. 271 in adjusted tempo according to Kenpom. But against BU’s defense, the Wildcats used speed to their advantage over the Bearcats’ depleted guard corps. BU failed to slow down UNH until late in the second half.
“We used our press to get the flow of the game going at a better pace,” Dempsey said. “Once our kids started seeing the ball go in, we started playing more like [what] we’re capable of.”
BU lost redshirt junior J.C. Show to a season-ending left tricep tear on Dec. 16. Since then, the Bearcats have won just two of their last seven games — one of which came against Marywood, a Division III opponent.
BU is set to continue AE play against Albany on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. from SEFCU Arena in Albany, New York.