Amid a two-game losing streak and in search of its first victory against a Division I program of the campaign, the Binghamton men’s basketball team righted the ship by going 2-1 across the weekend at the Lafayette Classic with overtime wins over LIU and Niagara.

“A lot of people don’t like close games, but I think close games are good because you get a chance to get experience with those kind of games,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “I don’t think we’re gonna be blowing a lot of teams out, so we’re probably gonna have a lot of close games. So we’re gonna have to learn how to win, and the way you learn how to win those kind of games is to experience it.”

Binghamton (4-6) began the tournament with a matchup against Niagara (3-5), and both squads were evenly matched early on. Neither team led by more than five points in the first half, with a 6-for-14 performance from the three-point line on the half carrying Binghamton to a 27-26 lead at the break. The tides turned for the Eagles in the second period as they began to take control of the lead. However, Binghamton stayed in the game, continuing to equalize the score in the closing minutes. Graduate student forward Ben Callahan-Gold seemed to have sent the game to overtime with a three-pointer with five seconds to go to make it 62-62, but the Eagles had other plans with a three-pointer at the final buzzer to cement a 65-62 victory.

“We are playing against Division I basketball teams, so they are able to play and make shots and then go on runs,” Sanders said. “It’s a game of runs, and they made their run where they went up 10, I think it was, and then we were able to battle back and then tie the game up and unfortunately they just hit a buzzer beater.”

Now in the midst of a three-game losing streak, the Bearcats were unable to build momentum against LIU (3-7) early on Saturday. BU shot just 38.89 percent from the field compared to LIU’s 50 percent field-goal percentage during the first half, as the three-point shot failed to fall for the Bearcats en route to a 32-24 deficit at halftime. BU’s fortunes flipped during the second period, however, thanks in large part to the offensive efforts of senior forward Nehemiah Benson. Benson exploded for 22 points after halftime for a career-high 28 points by the game’s end. The comeback would continue after regulation, as sophomore forward Gavin Walsh forced his way to the rim for two to make it 59-59 to send the game to overtime. Benson continued to spearhead BU’s offense in overtime, as he contributed seven of BU’s 16 points during the period to clinch a 75-70 victory for Binghamton.

“We were riding the hot hand and it was working for us,” Sanders said. “We’re one of those teams where when things are working for us, we want to keep going to it and [Benson] just stepped up and made big play after big play.”

Closing the weekend out against the tournament hosts Lafayette (4-5), the Bearcat offense produced its most efficient half of basketball all weekend with splits of 44.44/42.86/90.91 percent from the field, the three-point line and the free-throw line, respectively, by halftime to build a 40-33 lead. BU stayed hot with an easy layup by graduate student guard Tymu Chenery putting the Bearcats up by 11 at 53-42 with just 13 minutes to go. Yet things began to fall apart after a series of fouls and turnovers gave the Leopards new life to turn the game into a back-and-forth battle in the closing minutes. This resulted in Lafayette sending the game to overtime tied 73-73 with a pair of free throws. Binghamton’s team efforts paid off in the end, with four separate Bearcats scoring in overtime and Benson blocking the potential game-winner from Lafayette as time expired to secure an 82-81 win.

“We played a shorter bench and moved some guy, because we kind of felt like some of the guys that were playing, weren’t really taking advantage of the opportunities,” Sanders said. “So we wanted to give some other guys an opportunity and I think it worked out for us.”

The Bearcats will now turn their attention to keeping the “Battle For The Interstate” trophy in Vestal as they hit the road to take on Le Moyne on Saturday, Dec. 7. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at Ted Grant Court in Syracuse, New York.