For 33 minutes, the Binghamton men’s basketball team played right with Oakland.

Playing shorthanded, without sophomore guard Romello Walker, who is dealing with a shoulder injury; freshman forward Thomas Bruce, who was out with a concussion; and losing sophomore forward Justin McFadden to a nose injury at halftime, the Bearcats (2-6) held a lead on the Golden Grizzlies with seven minutes to play. But, Oakland ended the game on an 18-6 run to come away with an 83-72 victory.

“Disappointed to lose for sure but not disappointed in the effort,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “We had a lot of different obstacles tonight, things that were working against us, playing a really good team on the road, we had a couple guys out … Our guys never wavered, they continued to fight.”

Oakland was picked to finish second in the preseason Horizon League poll — a traditionally strong mid-major conference — but Binghamton played toe-to-toe with its opponent in the first half. The Bearcats came out on fire, shooting 45 percent from the floor and drilling 10 3-pointers to head into the locker room tied with the Golden Grizzles, 45-45. Junior guard Marlon Beck spearheaded the BU offense in the half, finishing with six points and eight assists in the period.

“That’s a really, really good mid-major basketball team and we came out here and we fought,” Dempsey said.

Binghamton couldn’t sustain its hot shooting in the second period. BU’s shooting percentage fell by 16 points — to 30.3 percent. The Bearcats shot just 26.7 percent from 3-point range and got to the free throw line just three times.

But the Bearcats managed to hang with their opponent despite struggling on the offensive end of the floor. After Oakland jumped out to a six-point lead, 58-52, to open up the second half, Binghamton responded with an equal run of its own. BU freshman guard Everson Davis finished an and-1 layup with just under 12 minutes left to play to tie the score at 58. The teams battled for the next five minutes before the Golden Grizzlies went on their run to pull away for the victory.

“We missed some crucial open ones and a couple of layups late and they got to the free throw line a lot more than we did,” Dempsey said. “It was a tough environment to come in and be able to win, but it was also a tough environment — with everything we were facing — for us to be able to compete for 40 minutes. That was probably what I was most pleased with.”

Four players reached double-digits for Binghamton. Davis finished the game with 18 points and five assists while Beck added nine points in the second half for a total of 15. Sophomore forward Willie Rodriguez chipped in 12 points and for the first time in his career, redshirt freshman guard John Schurman eclipsed double figures, hitting three 3-pointers to finish with 11 points.

Binghamton is set to return to action on Saturday at Buffalo. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. from the Alumni Arena in Buffalo, New York. The status of the three injured players for that game has not been released.