Coming off a nine-day pause of play, the Binghamton men’s basketball team earned its first victory over a Division I opponent with an 80-71 overtime defeat over visiting Lehigh. After a first half that ended in a 38-38 stalemate, a last-second free throw from the Bearcats forced an overtime period where Binghamton outscored Lehigh 13-4 to claim the win.

“That’s exactly what we need,” Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders said. “We need guys kinda laying it all out, leaving it out there on the court and that’s what I thought we did today.”

Lehigh (3-7) opened the match with a pair of successive three-pointers, but the Bearcats (3-6) stayed within a score following a mid-range jumper from junior guard Jeremiah Quigley. The Mountain Hawks, however, immediately built out their largest lead of the half with a fast-break layup after forcing a Binghamton turnover, going ahead 12-5 by the first media timeout. The Bearcats’ offense exited the break firing on all cylinders, knotting it up at 14-14 thanks to a five-point scoring run from Quigley.

The foes swapped leads throughout the half before a pair of free throws from senior center Demetrius Lilley tied the game 36-36. After surrendering a tip-in in the final seconds of play, Quigley traversed the court and drilled a close-range shot as the buzzer rang, tying the match half once more with a score of 38-38.

“It’s a conscious effort to understand — we have to be really good defensively, really good offensively and be able to execute,” Sanders said. “So when we come out of that halftime, we’re not digging ourselves a hole.”

Binghamton opened the second half where it left off, forcing a pair of turnovers on the Mountain Hawks’ first two possessions alongside a 7-0 scoring run, helped by a three-pointer by junior forward Zyier Beverly. Lehigh fought back from multiple-possession deficits to tie the match twice, first at 48-48 and later at 56-56. However, the Bearcats responded with a fiercely contested layup courtesy of graduate student guard Jackson Benigni and a pair of free throws from Beverly to take a five-point lead with under a minute to play.

Lehigh did not go down without a fight, hitting two consecutive contested three-pointers before a Quigley free throw on the final possession forced an overtime period to decide the match.

“I feel like when adversity hit, we stayed together,” Quigley said. “We stayed as a team. That’s what we’ve been talking about all week.”

Binghamton dominated defensive play in overtime, building a 75-69 lead with 54 seconds left while holding the Mountain Hawks to just two points. The Bearcats controlled the pace of play for the remainder of the match, with Benigni tacking on a point off a free throw while Beverly netted the final four BU points.

A last-ditch Lehigh jumper made it an 80-71 game as Binghamton claimed the victory.

“Heartfelt victory, one that I think is going to be able to propel us and to show us exactly the heart and the grit that we need to play with consistently,” Sanders said. “And again, we got to be able to do it on a consistent basis, and again, we only played six or seven guys tonight, but I don’t ever want to use that as an excuse.”

Four Bearcats finished the night with double-digit scoring on 50 percent or better shooting from the field, with Beverly leading the pack at 25 points and three steals. Quigley tallied 22 points alongside five rebounds and four assists and Lilley and Benigni added 15 and 13 points, respectively. The Bearcats shot season-highs of 58.7 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc as a squad.

“I thought [Beverly] was tremendous for us,” Sanders said. “I’m trying to get him to rebound the ball a little bit more. He has eight rebounds today, still doesn’t have any offensive rebounds.”

The Bearcats’ homestead will continue when they host Le Moyne on Saturday, Dec. 6. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. on the Dr. Bai Lee Court in the Events Center in Vestal, New York.