For one more game, Colgate defied the law of averages.
The Raiders didn’t regress from their torrid 2013-14 shooting clips of 51.3 percent from the floor and 48.9 percent from deep, and routed the Binghamton men’s basketball team, 93-64, Sunday afternoon at the Events Center.
Colgate (4-2) torched Binghamton (1-6) from every spot on the floor, shooting 66.7 percent from the field and 62.5 percent (15 for 24) from long range. The Bearcats had not allowed an opponent to reach 90 points since Manhattan scored 94 on Dec. 30, 2011.
“I think it goes without saying it was a tough day,” Binghamton head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “Give Colgate a lot of credit. They’re in a really good offensive rhythm right now as a group. They came in here and just put it on us.”
And they didn’t always need much space or time to do it, either. The Bearcats frequently contested Colgate’s shooters, but they also miscommunicated at times, leaving the threats with open looks.
“I think they had too many open shots,” said freshman guard Marlon Beck, who led Binghamton with 14 points. “I mean, they hit a couple of good shots, but I think they had too many [open ones].”
Boasting a lineup teeming with shooters — even 6-foot-11 junior center Ethan Jacobs buried four treys — the Raiders ran lots of screens and flairs. They whipped the ball around the perimeter and forced Binghamton to keep pace.
“When you play a team that’s playing as well as Colgate right now, they make you pay for your sins,” Dempsey said. “They make you pay for not talking. They make you pay for mishandling a ball screen or a handoff or whatever it might be.
“They were on their ‘A-game’ and ran a clinic on us.”
That clinic stalled, albeit briefly, late in the first half.
After scoring 31 points in the first 10 minutes and holding a 39-19 lead with 6:52 remaining, Colgate shot 4 for 8 and turned the ball over three times the rest of the way to the break. Most coaches would love that 50 percent clip, but the Raiders hit 17 of their 25 field goals in the first half, good for a 68 percent mark.
With an opportunity to gain ground, the Bearcats closed the period on a 17-9 run and pulled to as close as 10 points.
But the intermission forced the Bearcats to leave the floor, disrupting their newfound rhythm.
“Halftime was probably not good for us because I thought we had found a little bit of rhythm and we had found a little bit of defensive chemistry,” Dempsey said. “They were talking and hustling, and then after halftime Colgate came out and got off to the good start to start the second half, and we were just chasing from there.”
Jacobs opened second-half scoring with a triple, and by the 15:27 mark, Colgate’s lead had bloated to 61-40. Moments later, Dempsey pulled sophomore guard Jordan Reed and freshman forward Nick Madray — the team’s top two scorers coming into the game. Neither player took the floor again.
Dempsey said his decision had nothing to do with Reed’s offensive struggles, as the sophomore shot 0 for 8 and scored a career-low one point, and everything to do with defensive matchups.
“I just felt like we had to go in another direction,” he said.
Colgate head coach Matt Langel never faced the same predicament on Sunday, as four Raiders finished in double figures.
Sophomore Austin Tillotson, whose one turnover stood as the lone blemish on an otherwise perfect afternoon, scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-9 shooting. He buried each of his four 3-pointers.
Jacobs scored 15, while junior guard Damon Sherman-Newsome added 14. Senior forward Murphy Burnatowski, the team’s leading scorer this season, contributed 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
After following a Nov. 16 blowout loss to Navy with a pair of closer games, the Bearcats will look to show similar resiliency against Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to sit here and analyze whether or not we’re going in the right direction. I’m not worried about that,” Dempsey said. “I think we’ll be better. We’ll be better on Wednesday.”
Tipoff against the Mountaineers (2-6) is set for 7 p.m. at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg, Md.
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