After a tight 75-71 overtime road win against NJIT, the Binghamton men’s basketball team left no room for doubt back in Vestal on Thursday night by routing New Hampshire 79-60. After an inefficient opening of play, the Bearcats solved the Wildcats’ zone and poured in points the rest of the way.

“You come into the huddle and you hear them, or at halftime, they’re saying, ‘We’ve been here before in this position,’” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We’ve been up in this game and that game,’ and they’re saying, ‘well, not today.’ So you got to give them credit, because we can say it, we can talk about it, but they have to actually go out there and do the things.”

The Wildcats (8-21, 6-8 AE) took an early lead with a layup, but sophomore forward Gavin Walsh responded with a rebound that he kicked out to senior guard Wes Peterson Jr. for a three-pointer to make it 3-2. New Hampshire soon went back out in front 5-3, before graduate student guard Tymu Chenery got the tie with a strong move inside for two. Defense was key early, with both squads going 2-for-6 from the field heading into the first media.

After more lead trading and an 18-18 tie, BU (15-14, 7-7 AE) found its shot when redshirt junior guard Chris Walker made it 21-18 by nailing down a three-pointer. This opened up an eight-point run fueled by five points from graduate student forward Ben Callahan-Gold. While New Hampshire outshot the hosts 31-24, a 50 percent shooting rate from the field on the half and tight defense kept the lead in the Bearcats’ hands. After Chenery capped the half with one final drive inside, BU entered the break up 35-22.

“We were able to get out in transition and run a little bit,” Sanders said. “[New Hampshire] were kind of sending three to four guys to crash the glass, and they had seven offensive rebounds in the first half, but we were telling the guys, ‘once we rebound, let’s get out and run.’ I thought we had a few easy baskets because they were crashing and they didn’t get the rebound.”

Peterson would be the first Bearcat to score to open the second, getting to the rim to take a 37-22 advantage. The offense kept moving from there, with a tough and-one layup from Walsh and another three-pointer from Walker putting the hosts up 43-25. Sophomore guard Evan Ashe soon joined in on the scoring off a dime from Walsh inside for two before making it 53-32 with a three-pointer.

Second-half success was fueled by several factors — the squad found more shots on offense and more efficiency by going 15-for-28 while winning the rebound battle 22-12. The Bearcats also capitalized on the Wildcats’ temper with a six-point play courtesy of two New Hampshire technicals to make it 63-38. All of these factors, without any room for error left by the hosts, led to Binghamton cementing its most dominant AE win since 2020 with the final score reading 79-60.

“When we came in at halftime, everybody was kind of serious,” Chenery said. “Nobody was really celebrating or anything … That loss at New Hampshire kind of put a bitter taste in our mouth, so we were pretty upset about that. We didn’t even care about the lead. We were just thinking about another 20 minutes just trying to get it higher and higher.”

Tying the school record for double-doubles in a season with 13, Walsh led the Bearcats with 15 points, five assists and 13 boards. The sophomore was one of five Bearcats who contributed double-digit points in the win.

“I think we’re really ready,” Chenery said. “Five guys in double figures, I think we all just kind of bought in really trying to play for each other … Winning is the number one priority. So I think we’re definitely ready.”