Following its 67-59 loss to Niagara last Saturday afternoon, the Binghamton men’s basketball team kicked off a two-game road trip with an 83-70 loss at Georgetown. Despite trailing by just five at halftime, BU was unable to cut into its deficit in the second half, and the injury-hampered seven-man rotation fell short of completing the upset.

“I thought we competed, thought we played hard,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “I thought especially first half, end of the first half, we had a turnover to give them the ball back and they got a shot at the end, but playing against a team like that, you got to try to take care of the basketball as much as possible. I thought we did a solid job.”

Georgetown (3-0) quickly made its presence known in the paint, taking a 4-2 lead off a dunk and a layup on its opening pair of possessions, but a corner three-pointer and a pair of successful free throw attempts from senior center Demetrius Lilley gave Binghamton (1-3) a 7-6 lead. The Hoyas’ offense began to heat up out of the first media timeout, embarking on an 8-2 run propelled by two consecutive three-pointers.

However, Binghamton continued to stay within striking distance. Junior guard Jeremiah Quigley found fellow junior guard Bryson Wilson beyond the arc before driving for a contested mid-range jumper and adding an and-one layup to bring the Bearcats within a point of the hosts. The Bearcats failed to reclaim the lead throughout the remainder of the first half, once more cutting their deficit to one after an and-one jumper from Quigley, but the Hoyas closed out the first period with a 6-2 run to cement a 41-36 advantage.

“We were challenging shots, I mean, they’re not a great shooting team,” Sanders said. “We unfortunately let them clean up some of those misses for scores. We were wanting certain guys to take shots, which I think we did, but I think a lot of times when you have those situations where a team doesn’t shoot a great percentage, its a little bit of defense, but also its a part of some teams might not be great at shooting the ball and I don’t think Georgetown should take 19 threes against us, they should punish us inside.”

Georgetown began to pull away early in the second half, growing Binghamton’s deficit to 54-40 out of the second media timeout after limiting the Bearcats to just one-for-11 on shot attempts from the field. However, an uncontested mid-range shot from graduate guard Jackson Benigni ended the slump. With just over 11 minutes to play, Binghamton stared down the barrel of a 16-point deficit, but a 9-4 Bearcat run kicked off when Benigni splashed a three-pointer, making it a three-possession game.

The Hoyas, however, quelled hopes of a comeback with a dominant 13-1 stretch, as the Bearcats trailed by 23 with just over four minutes to play. Senior guard Wes Peterson Jr. added four points for the Bearcats, but the Hoyas matched their scores, maintaining the 23-point deficit. Binghamton’s offense showed sparks in the closing minutes, with a three-pointer from junior guard Ryan Richardson and a pair of successful free throws alongside a three-pointer from Benigni, making it an 83-68 game, but the Bearcats only found the net once more in the match, falling to the Hoyas 83-70.

“We created some advantages offensively,” Sanders said. “That’s what we want to do, we want to create advantages and then keep the defense chasing us. But we had multiple drives and some skip passes or some one more passes, which I thought led to open shots. We made some threes finally.”

Quigley led the Bearcats with a season-high 17 points and eight assists, scoring 14 in the first half. Binghamton’s defeat was marked by a significant defeat in the paint points battle, being outscored 49-20, while also surrendering 13 turnovers to the Hoyas’ four. This contrast was propelled by the Hoyas’ ability to grab offensive rebounds, outboarding the Bearcats 15-6 on the night.

“[The] guys were aggressive on their drives,” Sanders said. “[Quigley] did a really great job of getting into the paint and creating some situations where he was able to score. He was able to kick it out for guys for shots, he was able to dish it off to some guys for baskets.”

The Bearcats will hope to get back in the win column when they continue their road trip against Longwood. Tipoff is set at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Joan Perry Brock Center in Farmville, Virginia.