After dropping its first two America East (AE) games on the road, the Binghamton men’s basketball team returned home on Thursday to take on Vermont, ultimately suffering its first home loss of the season in a 82-62 defeat. After a first half that saw Binghamton stay neck and neck with the reigning conference champs, the Bearcats were unable to find a spark in the second as Vermont pulled away.

“It’s tough when you take one guy out and then the other guy comes in and makes the same mistakes,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We got to cut down on our mistakes, and we got to be more consistent in our execution. We’re not executing at a high enough level to get [wins].”

The game remained scoreless for the opening minutes with both teams trading boards, but Binghamton (8-8, 0-3 AE) eventually cracked the scoring open with graduate student guard Symir Torrence tipping in a layup to make it 2-0 The game stayed back-and-forth from there, with junior guard Tymu Chenery driving in a layup as well to give BU a 4-2 advantage over the Catamounts (14-5, 4-0 AE). Then, under double-coverage, senior forward Tariq Balogun kicked the ball out to Torrence who nailed a jumper making it a 6-6 game.

Binghamton then went on dry spell from the floor as Vermont boasted a seven point lead. Eventually, the Bearcats got back in it with back-to-back three-pointers from senior guard Armon Harried and Torrence to make it 15-12 Vermont. After BU nailed four free throws to stay within striking distance, sophomore guard Chris Walker knocked down consecutive three-pointers to stay within four of Vermont at 26-22. The three-pointers kept coming, with freshman forward Gavin Walsh swishing one from the corner, before Chenery scored BU’s final points of the half with a layup as Binghamton entered the half down 31-27.

“I thought we could add a better result in the first half, which [could] have made it a more interesting game,” Sanders said. “I didn’t feel we should have been down by four points at halftime, but … we had a stretch in that last media where we had some turnovers and a couple bad shots, which allowed them to get out and get some easy baskets. Vermont is a pretty good offensive team, so when you allow them to score easy baskets that always comes back to bite you.”

Graduate student guard Dan Petcash got his own rebound and sink in a layup to open up the second half for BU. Vermont proceeded to build its largest lead of the game at 40-29, but Chenery knocked down a jumper in paint to cut it down to 40-31. As the Catamounts pulled away away, Binghamton received a surge of momentum as senior forward Nehemiah Benson went on a six point run, before adding on an assist to Torrence who sank in a three-pointer to make it 54-41. However, it was not enough as Vermont left the Events Center with a 82-62 win.

“To start that second half, we had some miscommunication where we wanted to switch a few things,” Sanders said. “ Vermont comes out and gets the three [pointer], and again that starts to give them confidence and they kind of just outplayed us from there. So we got to get better. We got to be able to play more than just a half. We got to be able to put a full game together.”

Chenery led the Bearcats with 16 points, while Torrence put up 11 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Snagging a team-leading 10 rebounds was Harried, who also added eight points. As a team, the Bearcats gave up 14 points on turnovers and 12 second-chance points to Vermont.

“If you don’t turn the ball over, you give yourself a chance and tonight we had 10 turnovers,” Sanders said. “It’s those crucial moments where that’s how the game gets away from you because they score. In the second half I think we had three or four in a row and then all of a sudden they’re going in transition and they’re getting easy baskets. So we have to eliminate that.”

BU will continue its home stretch in search for their first win of conference play as they take on UMass Lowell on Saturday, Jan. 20. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.