The Binghamton University men’s basketball team will be looking for its first win of the month when it visits Boston University at 7 tonight.
The Bearcats will look to play a complete game at Boston, after late rallies failed to erase early deficits in their previous two games.
“We have to play a good 40 minutes,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin Broadus. “We are going to fight hard and fight until the end. That’s my thing. We are fighters. We are not going to let people beat up on us.”
Binghamton beat up on Boston, 69-49, the last time these two teams met in the first week of January. But the Bearcats are the ones who are beat up right now, with several injuries hampering the team.
Lazar Trifunovic, who has scored just eights points in the past two games after scoring 19 against Hartford, is battling back and knee injuries, while Giovanni Olomo and Jaan Montgomery are dealing with their own ailments. Sharpshooter Milos Klimovic didn’t even make the trip to UMBC and Reggie Fuller, who is coming off season-highs of 19 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to UMBC, didn’t practice. But while his team is hurting, Broadus said he knows they will give 100 percent no matter what.
“We have tough guys — we’ll fight through it and give it our all out there,” Broadus said. “Your mind and body take a toll over a lot of things and I want these guys to fight through it.”
The last time they played, the Bearcats held the Terriers to 18-for-43 from the field, including 5-for-14 from behind the arc. That’s the kind of defensive effort which Broadus wants to see more of.
“Our defense has to step up,” Broadus said. “We had a good-spirited practice today. [We’ll] fine-tune some things and we’ll be ready to go.”
Binghamton’s defense has allowed opponents to shoot 46 percent from the floor, a conference worst, but Boston’s offense is last in the league in shooting, at 39 percent from the field.
“We can’t sit back on our heels,” Broadus said. “We have to punch first, punch often and punch last.”
The Bearcats have proved that they will fight no matter how many points they are down, but now they are fighting for a conference tournament seed as well. Binghamton is tied for fourth with Albany, while Boston sits a half game back behind them.
Boston was picked to finish first in the preseason coaches’ poll, but has disappointed. The Terriers have managed to pull themselves out of the cellar with a three-game win streak, the longest of their season.
The Terriers are led by Corey Lowe, who is averaging 18.4 ppg, third-best in the conference. He’s also averaging 3.76 3-pointers per game, the most in the conference.
As for Binghamton, different players have led it each night, from Fuller to Dwayne Jackson to Chretien Lukusa to Mike Gordon.
“Every night, you never know who is going to play well,” Broadus said. “We need more consistency from certain guys.”
Broadus also said his players need to stop looking at themselves as individuals and instead as one unit.
“We need everybody to step up,” Broadus said. “We need a whole team effort.”
Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Case Gym. Live stats are available at bubearcats.com.
Binghamton returns home Thursday for a 7 p.m. matchup with the New Hampshire Wildcats.
TV games announced: The Binghamton athletics department announced Monday that two upcoming men’s basketball home games will be televised by Time Warner Sports. The Feb. 14 game versus New Hampshire and the Feb. 27 contest against Albany will be aired live in both the Binghamton and Albany areas. Longtime Binghamton radio commentator Roger Neel will handle the play-by-play duties for both games. He will be joined by color-man John Caveney, a men’s basketball hall-of-famer at Le Moyne College. Time Warner Sports is channel 23 locally.