After securing a 75-68 home win against Army, the Binghamton men’s basketball team suffered its worst loss of the season with an 84-49 defeat on the road against Colgate on Wednesday night. The game went back and forth during the opening stretch before a stretch of inefficient shooting by BU allowed Colgate to build a lead. From there, BU was unable to get back in the game as the Bearcats sustained a 35-point loss.

“We couldn’t execute our offense,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We scored 49 points…I thought it was solid defensively. But offensively, we took bad shots. We turned the ball over and gave them an opportunity to score these baskets which we knew was going to be a key part of the game.”

After winning the opening tipoff, Colgate (4-3) quickly drained a three-pointer to open up the scoring. Senior guard Armon Harried responded with a three-pointer of his own from the top of the key to put BU (4-4) on the board. The game would continue to go back and forth during the opening stretch, with junior guard Tymu Chenery connecting down low with senior forward Tariq Balogun, who nailed a turnaround jumper to make it 6-5. A few possessions later, Chenery made two layups to give BU its first lead of the game at 9-8.

The game then evolved into a battle around the rim by both sides. Freshman forward Gavin Walsh spun around a Raider defender in the paint and finessed a reverse layup to give BU a 15-12 lead. However, soon after, BU began to struggle on the offensive end while Colgate began to pull away. The Raiders scored 16 unanswered points to build a 39-18 lead, and out-rebounded BU 25 to 15 on the half while netting 11 second-chance points and five points off of Binghamton’s turnovers. With Harried driving in a layup in the closing seconds of the first period, Binghamton entered halftime down 44-23.

“Colgate is the type of team that defensively they just pack into paint and they make you shoot from the outside,” Sanders said. “But I thought we could have done a better job of driving into the paint, kicking it out and getting guys shots. Like we had [Harried], he makes a three-point shot and then next possession [Benson] has an opportunity to drive it and kick it to him. Instead of kicking it to him, [Benson] took a tough two point shot…So it’s just a matter of reading the game a little bit better as a team.”

Chenery quickly swished in a three-pointer to start the scoring for BU in the second half, making it a 46-26 game. The Bearcats continued their attempt to claw back after graduate student guard Symir Torrence took the ball downcourt and found Chenery, who proceeded to drive in a layup to make it 49-30. However, the Bearcats were unable to get any closer to the Raiders, who continued to extend their lead. Colgate controlled the rest of the game, going up by as much as 39 points off of 55.56 percent shooting from the field in the second half. When the buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 84-49 in favor of the Raiders as BU suffered its fourth loss of the year.

Chenery for the third game in a row led the stat sheet for BU with a nine-point outing. However, for the first time this season, no Bearcat broke double digits in the point column. Binghamton struggled offensively, shooting just 37 percent from the field and 3-for-17 from the three-point line.

“I didn’t think we took great shots today,” Sanders said. “A lot of that was other teams scouting just as much as we scout, so they know the guys who can make them and can’t make them, getting with [guys who can’t make them] being out. [Sophomore guard Chris Walker] is not shooting it great right now. We gotta rely on him to make some shots. [Chenery] didn’t make any [three-pointers] over the last two games. He’s 0-for-8 over those last two games. So guys got to step up and make shots.”

The Bearcats will begin their final nonconference stretch on the road at Stonehill on Saturday, Dec. 2. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at Merkert Gymnasium in North Easton, Massachusetts.