On an afternoon when Dwayne Jackson scored 26 points and Reggie Fuller recorded yet another double-double, the loudest cheers were reserved for a walk-on freshman.

Chad Henry laid in the ball with one minute remaining in Binghamton’s 80-55 route over the Maine Black Bears Sunday, scoring the first basket of his college career and prompting a standing ovation from the crowd and his bench.

It was that kind of game for the Bearcats (12-14, 8-6 America East), who used a 21-4 run at the end of the first half to put the game away for good.

“It feels pretty good,” Fuller said. “Everybody loves winning. When you lose, nothing goes good, but when you win everything feels great.”

Binghamton has won two consecutive games after losing four straight. Maine (7-18, 3-9) has dropped two straight.

Fuller finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the year. And Jackson went 11-of-15 from the floor and hit on all three of his shots from downtown.

“Today the basket just seemed a little wide,” Jackson said. “I just got out there and my teammates got me the ball in good places.”

“[Jackson] shot the ball really well today,” said BU head coach Kevin Broadus. “He missed four shots, but I bet I can tell you every one he missed — he knows I can tell you every one he missed.”

Early in the game Jackson exploited Maine’s zone defense, but as the Black Bears adjusted so did the Bearcats, kicking the ball down low to Fuller and Lazar Trifunovic, who scored 14 points.

As a team, the Bearcats out — rebounded Maine 39-22 and finished with 12 more offensive rebounds. The Black Bears turned the ball over 26 times, helped by five steals each from Jackson and Mike Gordon, three steals from Fuller and Brandon Herbert and two steals from Chretien Lukusa.

Despite the dominating victory, the Bearcats were hardly celebrating after the game, noting that Maine was depleted — the Black Bears dressed eight players, five of whom were freshmen.

“It’s a good win for us but I’m not supposed to jump for happiness, because it is not over,” Trifunovic said. “I’ll be happy when we win the conference.”

The players echoed the sentiments of their coach.

“The thing that disturbed me the most is that during a timeout I saw our guys with 14 minutes left in the game laughing and joking,” Broadus said. “When you’re trying to win games and championships you don’t laugh and joke until the clock says 0:00. It’s all business. It’s all basketball. 95 feet for 40 minutes.”

The Bearcats have a week off before heading to New York City to take on Manhattan of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in an ESPNU Bracketbuster game.

“[The losing streak] is definitely forgotten,” said Gordon, who made his 98th consecutive start on Sunday. “We try to play every game one at a time. This one’s over, now we gotta step up at Manhattan.”

Coaches take on cancer:

Coaches from both teams donned sneakers as part of “Coaches vs. Cancer” weekend. After the game, Broadus spoke on the impact that cancer has had on his life.

“Today was a touching day,” Broadus said. “A lot of people don’t understand that cancer is bigger than anything out there right now. It’s taken lives. It took my father’s life.”

According to its Web site, Coaches vs. Cancer exists to leverage the strength, community leadership and celebrity of our country’s basketball coaches to raise awareness, reduce cancer risk through education programs while raising funds for the fight against cancer.

“The cancer thing is bigger than this basketball game,” Broadus said. “Wins and losses, you have a chance. After the game you have a chance to win the next one or lose the next one. The thing about cancer is your chances are very slim and that’s a part of life.”