Like last year’s one-point win over Bloomsberg, the men’s basketball team narrowly secured an exhibition game victory over Division II Mansfield on Saturday afternoon at the Events Center. Though they led by as many as 12 points through the game and not once allowed a tie or fell behind, the Bearcats just pulled ahead with a 66-60 win to open their season.
But for head coach Tommy Dempsey, that was the ideal scenario.
“I thought it was great,” he said. “It couldn’t have played out much better for us just from a standpoint of when you’re playing these games, you want to be in some real tough situations. These are learning experiences for us. We need to get out there and play together and get our feet wet, but it wouldn’t have done us any good to play in a blowout situation.”
In the first half, BU had been relying on kicking the ball out, on passing to wing players and attempting to score from outside. But it wasn’t working.
“We were trying to get out and really go, and put a lot of pressure on [Mansfield], but we just didn’t shoot the ball well,” Dempsey said. “We were 3 for 17 from three, so we tried to adjust a little bit at half time to not take as many threes. Not because we weren’t getting good shots, but guys weren’t really hitting them.”
The team had maintained a shooting percentage from the field higher than forty through most of the half, but by the end, the Bearcats dipped to 34.6 percent on 9 of 26 shooting. That wasn’t much better than Mansfield, who weighed in at around 33 percent or lower through the half. From the three-point region, Binghamton was shooting on a 17.6 percent clip.
“We did try to slow it down a little bit more and get it inside, because I think when you play fast, we shoot a lot of threes in transition, and when we get playing fast, I think we tend to forget about throwing it in the paint or scoring in the paint,” Dempsey said.
Despite the shift, the team still scavenged for points in the closing moments of the game. Mansfield pulled to within one point, at 57-56, with 1:20 left on the clock. Freshman forward Willie Rodriguez, sophomore guard Marlon Beck II and junior guard Jordan Reed led from there, with Rodriguez landing a clutch trey at the minute mark to start the streak.
Binghamton’s remaining six points came from the line, with Rodriguez, Beck and Reed each drawing fouls and hitting both shots. Mansfield junior guard Thomas Moore tried to close the gap again, attempting a three with two seconds left, but Rodriguez grabbed an extra board to prevent further damage.
Though the highly touted freshman ended the game with 13 points – behind only Beck, who posted a game-high 16 points – Rodriguez didn’t dig in until the second half. All 13 of his shots as well as four of his six rebounds came in the latter 20.
“I adjusted,” Rodriguez said of his transition from the first half to the second. “All of my nerves were gone. Coach Dempsey helped out a lot. I felt his trust, keeping me in the whole game even though I wasn’t playing too well.”
Freshman Romello Walker, on the other hand, experienced the converse. The 6-foot-6 guard came out with a huge first-half performance on offense. He tallied 10 points in the first half – including two threes – and knocked down each of his first three shots.
“[Walker] came right in and just got on a good flow because he came in with energy,” Dempsey said. “He made his first shot. I think that always helps. … Willie didn’t make his first couple of shots, and I thought that the pressure seems to mount a little bit when you don’t make them.”
But that sort of conflicting result is why Dempsey scheduled two exhibition games. The head coach aims to season his freshmen a bit more quickly, to expose them to the harsh lights of the arena and the cheers and jeers of fans so that come the regular season, his young team will be more ready.
“You need to see guys play when the lights go on,” Dempsey said. “A guy might not play well because he’s nervous and it’s his first game, but in game four he might be more comfortable and he might play great. So I think you need to really give some of the young guys time to show what they can do.”
Behind Beck and Rodriguez in scoring were Reed and Walker, who each registered 12 points. Rodriguez, Walker and Beck also led the team with six rebounds apiece, and Reed followed closely behind with five.
While sophomore forward Magnus Richards and freshmen forwards John Schurman and Jordan McRae were expected not to dress today, with the former serving a one-game suspension after violating a team policy and the latter two redshirting this season, Justin McFadden also did not dress on Saturday. The 6-foot-5 freshman forward suffered a broken nose during team practice on Friday night. Dempsey was not able to provide a timeline of his recovery.
Next up for the Bearcats is another exhibition game, against Oswego State. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. at the Events Center.