After losing its first four games in the month of February, Binghamton University’s men’s basketball team has won the past two.
The Bearcats (12-14, 7-6 AE) will take that two-game win streak into a non-conference game against Manhattan Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m as part of ESPN’s BracketBuster.
But the Jaspers (11-15, 5-11 MAAC), who sit in eighth place out of the 10 team conference, have put together a little win streak of their own over the past couple of weeks. After losing eight in a row, Manhattan has won their past three games averaging 84 points per game.
Manhattan is led by sophomore guard Antoine Pearson, who is averaging 12.1 ppg and is coming off a 20-point performance against Siena in which he went 6-for-7 from behind the arc.
While their offense has been flourishing recently, their defense is still giving up 74 points per game during their three victories and is last in the MAAC in field goal percentage defense as teams are shooting 47 percent.
But no matter the numbers, Binghamton head coach Kevin Broadus knows how good his opponent is.
“Their record is no indication of how good they are,” he said. “All I’m thinking about is Manhattan.”
Despite the small break in conference play, Broadus’ team will not take this matchup lightly.
“We are going to be practicing hard and we are going there to win,” he said.
With Albany coming into the Events Center Wednesday for a crucial conference game, it will be important for the Bearcats to continue to pick up some momentum as they struggled a bit towards the end of their 80-55 victory over Maine on Sunday.
“In the second half, we got tentative and turned the ball over,” Broadus said.
But that shouldn’t be an issue against Manhattan, as the Bearcats haven’t had a game since that win on Sunday, with a couple of days off throughout the week.
Binghamton should come out playing hard for all 40 minutes as Broadus knows that’s what it takes to be a great team.
“Great teams play all 40 minutes. Memphis plays totally for 40 minutes. Kansas plays 40 minutes,” he said.
And during those 40 minutes, expect the Bearcats to play their hearts out.
“It’s not always the best players that win the game, it’s the team that plays the hardest,” Broadus said.
For live audio and live stats, check out bubearcats.com.