Suffering its worst defeat of the season thus far, the Binghamton men’s basketball team fell to Vermont 82-51 on the road. With another win under their belt, the Catamounts continue their unbeaten streak to stay in first in the conference standings while BU drops down to third behind UMBC.

“I just thought they were way better than us in every category,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We gave them way too many easy baskets in transition. We were way too soft [and] we weren’t physical enough. Offensively, we passed up some shots early and I thought we weren’t aggressive enough … We gotta get back to the drawing board and continue to get better.”

The Bearcats (10-11, 7-5 America East [AE]) failed to find their footing from the start of the game, only taking the lead once after senior guard Christian Hinckson sunk a 3-pointer within the first two minutes to post a one-point advantage. After Hinckson’s contribution, however, Vermont (19-4, 11-0 AE) quickly began to rack up points, going up by as much as 18 points in the first half. Although junior guard Jacob Falko tried to even the scoring with a nine-point contribution in the first period, the Bearcats’ lack of consistency allowed the Catamounts to head into halftime with a 35-20 lead.

“I don’t think anyone performed well,” Sanders said. “I thought [junior forward] Bryce Beamer came in and he fought. He was diving on the floor, he was fouling guys — he played hard as hell. [Beamer] was the one guy, to me, who I think competed and played as hard as he needed to play.”

Beamer’s major contributions came in the second half of the matchup, posting five points off a 3-pointer and a jumper from in the paint. The Bearcat was also called for four fouls. Despite his efforts to get the ball rolling again for Binghamton, the Vermont lead became insurmountable as the half went on.

“The one thing I was talking about a lot is that we gotta compete because if you don’t, you have no shot,” Sanders said. “We didn’t look confident. We looked like we were second-guessing ourselves. When playing against a team like Vermont, or any good team, you gotta be confident.”

The Catamounts shot 65.4 percent from the field in the second half, improving on the 48.3 percent clip they had in the first. Whilst Vermont’s offensive consistency allowed it to put 47 points past BU in the final 20 minutes, Binghamton had no response, only recording 37.1 percent from the field on 13-35 shooting. Additionally, only one Binghamton player tallied double digits as Falko ended with a game-high 14 points after being subbed out with 27 minutes of playing time. Five Vermont players posted 10 or more points.

Although BU played on the road Wednesday night, Sanders expects his side to compete in every game regardless of whether or not the lineup is playing on home turf.

“I would hope that our crowd would give us energy, but Vermont is gonna come out and play the same way,” Sanders said. “If we’re gonna be soft like we were today, it doesn’t matter where we play, it’s gonna be the same result.”

BU’s next opponent is UNH. Although the Wildcats are currently positioned at sixth overall, three of their athletes have averaged over 10 points a game in conference play thus far. Sanders also cites UNH’s consistency on the rebounding end as a threat to the Bearcats.

“[UNH is] a team that’s gonna play super hard, they’re gonna rebound the ball, they’re always one of the top teams in the country in rebounding,” Sanders said. “It’s gonna be a hard game … We wanna finish this season off in a good way, so we take this loss, learn from it, get better and start tomorrow preparing ourselves for the next game.”

The matchup against the Wildcats is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 12. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.