Off the back of a 72-64 loss against Vermont last Thursday evening, the Binghamton men’s basketball team’s losing skid in America East play continued at home on Saturday afternoon with a 70-65 defeat against Albany. Despite holding a multi-possession lead over the visitors with just eight minutes to go, crucial BU turnovers down the stretch gave the Great Danes the edge.

“We haven’t protected the basketball all year,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “So hopefully this is a wake-up call for us to understand that we have to protect the basketball if we want to give ourselves a chance.”

After winning the tipoff, Binghamton (9-11,1-4 AE) got the ball moving past a tight Albany (10-10, 2-3 AE) defense to set up a three-pointer from graduate student guard Tymu Chenery, but Albany knotted it up with one of its own. Albany continued to apply pressure on Binghamton’s attack, forcing the Bearcats to go 2-for-7 from the field by the first media timeout. Coming out of the timeout, however, the Bearcats heated up after Chenery splashed another three from deep to retake an 11-10 advantage. Binghamton kept things tight, with a late five-point scoring run by Chenery bringing Albany’s lead down from six points to one to make it a 33-32 game at halftime.

“Every first media time out, it seems when I’m looking at the guys, they look winded,” Sanders said. “It takes them a while to get that second wind … The other thing is just being able to execute better. A team is pressuring you, and you get it up, you got to be able to get into our offense. The problem with that is, the wrong guy might have the ball, and then you can’t get the right guy to the ball because today they’re overplaying you and denying you.”

The Bearcats wasted no time taking control of the game to open the second period, with sophomore forward Gavin Walsh slamming back a missed free throw for two to take a 35-33 lead. Sophomore guard Evan Ashe then dropped in an easy layup for a 41-35 advantage. As the clock neared less than eight minutes, graduate student forward Ben Callahan-Gold splashed a three-pointer to make it 56-52 heading into the final stretch. The tides turned, however, when Albany scored off consecutive BU turnovers to tie things up. This ignited a 12-point run from the Great Danes that resulted in a 64-56 advantage for the visitors. Binghamton proceeded to go on a mini-run of its own to answer, capped by a layup from Walsh to make it 66-63, but the Bearcats failed to retake the lead in the closing minute and a half. When the final buzzer sounded, Albany claimed a 70-65 victory.

“We’re not giving our defense a chance to get set up because we’re just unnecessary turnovers,” Sanders said. “We had that one stretch toward the end of the game where we had maybe three or four tries to throw back door passes, and they just weren’t there.”

Chenery led the team Saturday with a 23-point and 11-rebound double-double while shooting 4-for-6 from the perimeter. Binghamton’s loss was defined by a failure to take care of the basketball as it gave up 11 turnovers in the second compared to six in the first, resulting in 15 second-half points scored off of turnovers for the Great Danes.

“Everybody wants to play so I don’t think it’s a matter of fatigue,” Sanders said. “I just think it’s a matter of you just have to go out there and do it. Everybody’s tired, right? Like the other tea is tired also, but they’re not throwing it away like we’re throwing it away. So we have to get better at that.”

The Bearcats will look to right the ship next Saturday, Jan. 25, as they head to Rhode Island to take on first-place Bryant. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, Rhode Island.