Coming off a loss to Penn State, the Binghamton men’s basketball team defeated SUNY Oneonta 82-63 in its home opener on Thursday. The Bearcats jumped out to an early lead, continuing to build and maintain it through the first half. Despite a late run from the Red Dragons in the final two-and-a-half minutes of the game, it was too little too late, as Binghamton pulled out a 19-point win in front of its home crowd.

“We got to respect our opponent to go out and play as hard as we can, and I think that’s what we did,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We never want to disappoint the home crowd, so you want to win as much as possible, especially at home. You also want to protect your home court, so I’m happy we’re able to get the win.”

While Oneonta (0-1) was first to gain possession, sophomore guard Evan Ashe grabbed a rebound and drained a three-pointer on the other end to get Binghamton (1-1) on the board. The next four points for BU came in the paint from graduate student guard Tymu Chenery and sophomore guard Jayden Lemond to make it 7-0. In the first five minutes of the game, the Bearcats were able to build a 12-point lead at 18-6. The Bearcats kept this momentum as a three-ball from graduate student guard Ben Callahan-Gold near the midway point in the half made it a 27-9 game.

“I thought we came out with the right mindset,” Sanders said. “We talked a lot this week about just trying to play together and on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, and I thought for the most part we did that.”

The Bearcats continued to dominate offensively, with senior forward Nehemiah Benson capturing the next five points, putting Binghamton up 32-11. Toward the end of the half, BU strung together a sequence that saw Lemond, Chenery, and Ashe score on fastbreak dunks—within 39 seconds of each other—to make it 40-18. To end the half, Ashe would tip the ball in to extend BU’s lead to 42-20 going into halftime.

“We wanted to double-team and kind of rotate and things like that, and I thought we did that pretty well,” Sanders said. “I liked our execution defensively, I thought we shared the ball.”

The Bearcats opened the second half on an 11-2 run to put the score at 53-22, sparked by two three-pointers from Callahan-Gold to get the scoring started. Binghamton continued to find their groove on offense, taking a 72-31 lead courtesy of a three-pointer from sophomore guard Max Sims, essentially putting the game out of reach. Despite the Red Dragons ending the game on a 13-0 run, the final score was still in BU’s favor at 82-63.

“We let them score way too many points in the second half and I think that’s because the guys that came in weren’t ready to play,” Sanders said. “So, we still have some work to do. We have two really good opponents coming up next that’s going to really test us, test our togetherness and so, I’m looking forward to these next few games.”

Callahan-Gold and Benson led the Bearcats with 21 and 18 points respectively. After holding Oneonta to just 28.57 percent shooting in the first half, BU allowed the visitors to shoot 51.72 percent in the second half. Meanwhile, BU shot 48.4 percent, enough to earn the victory.

“I think any time you win, it’s really good,” Sanders said. “We don’t take these wins for granted, even though you’re playing against a Division III opponent.”

Binghamton will hit the road to take on the University of Miami on Sunday, Nov. 10. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida.