Entering the Palestra on Saturday afternoon, the Binghamton men’s basketball team lined up against a Penn squad that had only made 25.2 percent of its shot attempts beyond the arc. But by way of a deflated BU (3-10) defense — which allowed Penn (6-7) to shoot 48 percent from the field and drain 12 three-pointers — and an offense that struggled to keep up from tip-off, the Quakers routed the Bearcats, 80-45, to close BU’s non-conference slate.

“We didn’t play well. We had a hard time putting the ball in the basket against their zone and it kind of snowballed from there,” Binghamton head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “We lost a little bit of energy in that first half. We were struggling to score and that’s just something that we have to continue to grow through.”

After a 3-point jumper from freshman guard Jackson Donahue to put Penn on the board first, Binghamton played the Quakers within one point through the contests opening five minutes. Baskets from sophomore forward Bobby Ahearn and freshman guard Everson Davis were enough to even the score at five early in the first half, but that was the closest that Binghamton would get against the Quakers all afternoon.

Penn responded with an 11-0 run to push the tally to 16-5 in under five minutes of game time. Freshman forward Thomas Bruce and sophomore forward Willie Rodriguez closed the gap to five with six consecutive points in the paint, but Penn continued to overwhelm the Bearcats with a scoring barrage to put the Quakers ahead, 37-14, at half. Of the eight three pointers made between both squads in the first 20 minutes, seven were registered by Penn.

“We’re going to go through some scoring droughts, we’re going to have some tough games offensively and it cant be 37-14 at half,” Dempsey said. “We have to try to stay in the game with our energy and our defense and we weren’t able to do that.”

Looking for a change of pace in the second half, Rodriguez came alive with an early dunk to kick off scoring in the period. But it didn’t take long for the Quakers to reignite their dominant offense. Junior forward Matt Howard recorded a three-pointer, a layup and a made free throw in just over 30 seconds to extend Penn’s lead, 43-16. Three points from sophomore guard Justin McFadden and a layup from Rodriguez pushed BU’s tally to 21, but Penn continued to roll as its lead hit 30, 51-21, with over 12 minutes to play.

Binghamton found itself on the right side of a 16-8 run through the next seven minutes of play, but the Quaker offense put together a 16-3 run in three minutes for its final burst of the contest, securing the 80-45 victory.

Despite putting up 31 points in the final half, the effort was not enough for the Bearcats. Binghamton was outscored in the paint, 32-16, as Penn picked up 20 points off of 17 BU turnovers.

“It was an uphill battle,” Dempsey said. “I thought we competed really hard in the second half, it was just an uphill fight.”

The Bearcats are set to open up their America East schedule on Wednesday against Stony Brook. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.