No one would describe this afternoon’s game at the Pizzitola Sports Center as “pretty.” Not for Brown, and certainly not for the Binghamton men’s basketball team, 74-57 losers of a long, sloppy battle in Providence, R.I.

The Bearcats (0-2), who dropped their season opener to Loyola Maryland on Friday night, shot 30.4 percent from the floor, turned the ball over 17 times and missed 15 of their 33 foul shots.

“We didn’t have a good night,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “It was a very sloppy game both ways. It wasn’t a good college basketball game, and we didn’t play well.”

Though Brown (1-0) held just a slim advantage in rebounding, 46-43, the Bears’ frontcourt played a key role in the win.

Sophomore forward Cedric Kuakumensah blocked six shots and altered a few more in addition to grabbing 14 rebounds and scoring nine points, while junior center Rafael Maia went for 14 points and nine boards. His heads-up pass out of the lane with 6:46 left set up a dagger 3-pointer by senior guard Sean McGonagill, handing Brown a 64-50 lead.

“They did a very good job on the inside protecting their rim,” Dempsey said.

With Kuakumensah and Maia lurking in the paint, sophomore guard Jordan Reed had arguably the least productive offensive performance of his career. Two days removed from scoring 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting against Loyola, Reed converted just two of his 16 field-goal attempts for eight points. He turned the ball over five times, thrice via the offensive foul, and fouled out for the second time in as many games.

Reed grabbed 13 rebounds and played a key role in a brief Binghamton spurt that trimmed a 17-point second half deficit to seven, but he simply couldn’t find a rhythm on offense.

“He got his shot blocked more than usual and he ended up settling for more jumpers than usual,” Dempsey said. “He really didn’t find his stroke today. It wasn’t a good day for him, but he’s not going to play great every game.”

But Reed wasn’t the only Bearcat to struggle. Freshman forward Nick Madray, who scored 22 points against Loyola, picked up two fouls guarding Maia in the first 1:18 of the game. Madray finished with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting, but played just three first-half minutes.

With Madray, freshman forward Magnus Richards and senior forward Roland Brown all in early foul trouble, Maia and Kuakumensah combined for 21 points and 14 rebounds in the first half. The referees whistled 50 fouls on the day.

“We were often out there without a big guy on the floor, just trying to get to halftime,” Dempsey said. “Everything was a foul, so I was trying to get to halftime. It was a close game, so I was trying to keep them on the bench.”

With Reed unable to get in a groove and Madray saddled with foul trouble, freshman point guard Marlon Beck II posted a team-high 13 points, nine of which came in the first half. He also grabbed three boards and recorded a pair of assists and steals.

After a 13-2 run by Brown in the final 3:33 of the first half put Binghamton behind by 10 points, Beck stepped up with a strong drive to the hoop to cut the halftime deficit to 37-29. He also sparked the Bearcats’ second-half spurt with one of his two 3-pointers, a steal and a free throw, trimming a 17-point deficit to seven with 11:35 remaining.

Freshman point guard Yosef Yacob was the only other Bearcat to reach double-figures, contributing 12 points on 3-of-8 shooting. He also had two assists and as many rebounds, but combined with Beck for 10 turnovers.

“[They] still had some costly turnovers at inopportune times,” Dempsey said of his freshman point guards. “That’s going to happen, but I thought they both played well. They’re getting a lot of time. They’re getting a lot of minutes. They’re getting a lot of experience, and hopefully that’s going to pay off for us as we move forward.”

For Brown, McGonagill shot an efficient 7 of 10 from the floor and 4 of 6 from deep to post a game-high 22 points. He also recorded four assists, four boards and two steals.

As a team, the Bears shot 43.5 percent from the field but, like Binghamton, shot worse than 55 percent from the charity stripe with a 53.5 percent clip.

The Bears now boast a 4-0 record against Binghamton, which will look to get back on track against another Ivy League program on Wednesday. The Bearcats are set to travel to Cornell for their third game of the season and a rematch of last year’s exciting tilt, a 79-77 Binghamton loss.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.