Two wins in a row, and the youngest team in the nation looks a bit more veteran.
After a tight first half that saw the lead swap five times and the Binghamton men’s basketball team lose an advantage that swelled to as many as nine, BU (4-20, 3-6 America East) tore away from UMass Lowell in the second behind a ridiculous 82 percent shooting clip from the floor.
With that white-hot hand, the Bearcats capped off their Wednesday-night victory over UMBC with a 76-69 triumph over the River Hawks (9-13, 3-6 AE).
In the second half alone, BU scored 48 points. That’s eight more than what the team managed throughout the entire game the last time the River Hawks and Bearcats faced off, on Jan. 2. In that matchup, BU fell, 50-40, after squandering a three-point lead heading into halftime.
The improvement shows just how far Binghamton has come. Averaging the AE’s worst field-goal percentage on a 39 percent clip, BU finished the game shooting 60 percent from the field and 54 percent from behind the arc. And no one player dominated in particular: Four scorers poured in 13 or more, with none surpassing 15.
“Nobody took 10 shots,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “They’re playing well together — I think that’s the thing that’s exciting. Both offensively and defensively, the group is clicking. We don’t always make shots, but the quality of shots has improved dramatically over the past few weeks.”
The key to the Bearcats’ success was their balance. They had two potent 3-point shooters in sophomore guards Marlon Beck II and Yosef Yacob, two low-post players in freshman forwards Bobby Ahearn and Willie Rodriguez, and a do-it-all, glass-crashing, foul-drawing forward in freshman Justin McFadden. As a team, BU got to the line 32 times. Whatever way the River Hawks defended them, the Bearcats got the ball to a weak spot and made it sink.
“We got to the foul line, we threw the ball inside, we made jump shots — it was just overall a very good offensive performance and hopefully a sign of things to come,” Dempsey said.
The whole-team effort that has been responsible for this two-game streak is a more recent development. The time of 20- or 30-point performances from one dominant Bearcat that still result in a loss are — most likely — over.
Every player who checked in for BU in scored at least one, highlighted by Yacob’s 15-point contribution off the bench. Twelve of those points came in the second half, during which the 6-foot 2014 All-Rookie team member couldn’t miss. He went 4 for 4 from the field — including 3 for 3 from deep.
What it came down to was, Binghamton worked out a plan and saw it through.
“We have to go inside and play inside out,” Dempsey said of BU’s game plan. “I think when we get the ball in the paint and we collapse the defense, then we can shoot some 3s.”
The Bearcats have made just 120 of 403 3-pointers in 23 games this season, which amounts to a 30 percent conversion rate. But they hit 7 of 13 3-pointers on a 54 percent clip tonight, and that was made possible by that inside-out scheme.
To create space on the arc, point guards Beck and Yacob looked to their interim big men, Ahearn and Rodriguez, to get into the paint.
“Not only can they score, but they can really pass the ball, too,” Yacob explained. “So they’re really unselfish. You pass them the ball, they’ll make the first plays and we really have faith in them so we just like to play through them.”
While Binghamton was dominant in the second half, things weren’t so secure out of the first. UMass Lowell opened the second on a 7-3 run to tie the game at 34, behind a jumper from freshman guard Jahad Thomas and classmate trey Lance Crawford.
The Bearcats wouldn’t allow the River Hawks to douse them at home, however, setting out on a 14-2 run of their own that featured two 3-pointers from Beck.
From there, the closest UMass Lowell would come was four, when the River Hawks picked apart a 12-point BU lead with just under six minutes to go. Yacob then stepped up big, contributing two treys to bump the Bearcat lead back to double digits.
Yacob and Rodriguez paced the Bearcats with 15 points apiece, while the former added three assists and one steal. Beck followed up with 14 points to go along with five assists and Ahearn added 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. McFadden contributed eight points and seven rebounds.
On the River Hawk side, Thomas led all players with a double-double off 20 points and 10 rebounds. Crawford added 17 points and four assists.
Next up for Binghamton is a Tuesday night home match against Hartford, which will be broadcast by ESPN3. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Events Center.