Saturday afternoon, the only team without a win in NCAA Division-I men’s basketball entered a game aganist Boston University. Saturday evening, that team finished its game still winless.
Binghamton University fell to the BU, 68-53. With the win, the Terriers snapped a two-game losing streak of their own, and improved their record to one game shy of .500 for the third time this season.
In front of at crowd of 3,232 – which included six fans in the Bearcat student section wearing paper bags over their heads – at the Events Center on Binghamton’s campus in Vestal, N.Y., BU (12-13, 8-3 America East) built an eight-point lead in the first half. The Terriers enlarged it to as many as 22 points over the Bearcats (0-23, 0-11 America East) with 2:27 left in the game en route to the win.
The Terriers first-half offense was built around 3-point shots and free throws. BU hit 4-of-8 treys it attempted in the first frame, and it was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line in the first, and 15-for-19 at the line in the game.
The free-throw shooting was a marked improvement over the Terriers’ previous 8-of-15 and 7-of-17 performances from the charity stripe against the University of Vermont and Stony Brook University, respectively.
“Over intersession, we shot 100 [free throws] a day,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “We got away from that. [We need] to get on the line more [in practice].”
Neither team excelled inside the arc during the first frame. Boston made only 4-of-14 first-half two-point field goals, while Binghamton was slightly better, completing 8-of-18.
Jones was still pleased, however, with how his team shot in the first.
“I thought we got good shots,” Jones said. “We went 9-for-22. We [successfully] shoot two more shots, we’re at 50 percent.”
In the second half, the Terriers improved to shoot 11-of-16 from two-point land, while dropping to a more normal 3-for-8 beyond the arc. The Bearcats went 11-for-21 inside the parabola in the second and 2-for-6 from beyond it. Binghamton still led in points in the paint, posting 18 in the second to the Terriers’ 14.
Senior guards Darryl Partin and Matt Griffin led the Terriers in the game with 13 points apiece. Griffin’s 4-for-6 performance from beyond the arc allowed him to contribute more than half of the Terriers’ 25 bench points.
Sophomore guard D.J. Irving, sophomore forward Dom Morris and red shirt freshman forward Malik Thomas also contributed eight points each for the Terriers. Thomas led BU in total rebounds with six and offensive rebounds with three, while Morris had the most defensive boards at four. Senior forward Pat Hazel had three steals for BU, as well.
The Bearcats also had a pair of 13-point scorers in sophomore Robert Mansell and freshman Ben Dickinson. Binghamton freshman Omar Richards was also a key factor, scoring eight points blocking two shots and stealing three. Junior Javon Ralling led the Bearcats with six total rebounds.
With 3:45 remaining in the game, BU senior forward Jeff Pelage was whistled for a technical foul after a scrum with Dickinson. Dickinson rolled around Pelage’s back and the pair fell down. While they were on the ground, Pelage kicked Dickinson and was called for the foul. The officials would spend a few minutes reviewing the play, before determining their original judgment correct.
Jones called it a “hard foul.”
“They got tangled up,” Jones said. “I don’t think Jeff intentionally meant to kick him.”
Technical aside, Jones was pleased with how his team bounced back from losing to two of the best teams in the conference to beat the worst.
“I was very pleased with the way we played both sides of the ball,” he said.
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