On Wednesday night, the Binghamton men’s basketball team faced UNH for its second matchup of the season. Despite falling behind by 10 points halfway through the second half, the Bearcats rallied back with a 15-0 run over a four-minute span to defeat the Wildcats 66-64.

“I thought we competed for the whole game,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We’ve been talking about trying to put a whole, complete game together. Even though we got down — basketball is a game of runs, so we were able to come back and close out.”

Graduate student forward Miles Gibson opened the scoring for BU (10-13, 6-4 America East [AE]) with a jumper. A few possessions later, graduate student guard Christian Hinckson caught the ball in the post and squared up to the rim. He made a quick move, got to the rim and finished the layup plus a foul. Despite gaining a 5-2 lead, the Wildcats (11-12, 6-5 AE) began to come back, rattling off an 8-0 run to go up 10-5.

Both teams traded baskets for most of the first half but after 12 minutes, the Bearcats were still down five points 21-16. With under a minute to play, the score was tied at 30 apiece when senior guard Dan Petcash hit a 3-pointer to give BU a slight 33-30 lead going into the break.

“I think that we can come out and play together more,” Sanders said. “On both sides, I thought we did a really good job of playing together. We had four guys in double figures.”

Junior guard Armon Harried and Hinckson led Binghamton in scoring with 10 points each in the first as the Bearcats outshot the Wildcats 45.2 percent to 40 percent. The visitors limited their turnovers to three compared to the host’s seven. BU finished the game with only eight turnovers to the Wildcats’ 12.

“We did a really good job of not turning the ball over,” Sanders said. “We had eight turnovers, which for us is usually a lot higher. So us not turning the ball over is a good thing for us.”

Binghamton came out in the second half matching baskets with the Wildcats. However, six minutes into the half UNH rattled off a 9-2 run, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers.

With less than 10 minutes left in the game and the Bearcats down 10, Petcash narrowed the deficit to seven points after hitting a three in transition. The senior hit another jumper followed quickly by a senior guard Jacob Falko layup to bring the visitors within three points. Harried dropped in a layup on the next possession and connected on two unanswered 3-pointers to complete a solo 8-0 run. During this span, the Bearcats amassed a 15-0 run which gave them a five-point cushion.

“I think it was more important for us as a team,” Sanders said. “It was good for them to see. We’ve been like that all year. We’ve been down, but we always have the ability to come back. Sometimes we put ourselves in too big of a hole and we’re not able to come back, but 10 points with seven minutes left — that’s not a lot of points … We stuck together, it was a total team effort.”

In the final minute of play, BU was up four points until a Wildcat 3-pointer cut the difference to just one point with 29.2 seconds left on the clock. However, on the following possession, the Bearcats broke UNH’s press and Harried finished an and-one layup to bring their lead back up to four points. Harried ended the night with a game-high 23 points.

“[Harried] does everything for us, such a competitor,” Sanders said. “He hit two really big threes for us, but he rebounded the ball well and played good defense. He’s just a guy that goes out and competes … He had another really good game.”

After missing two free throws, Binghamton was up two points with 12 seconds left. The Wildcats attempted to extend the game but the Bearcats managed to get one final stop, securing a 66-64 victory.

“We can’t be satisfied,” Sanders said. “That’s kind of how our season has been so far. We win a game, and I think we get too high … We gotta be ready to practice because that’s what’s going to prepare us for Saturday. The message is not being satisfied. Continue to be greedy, continue to want to go out and get better every day because we still got a lot of games left, and we just gotta make sure we stay focused.”

BU will return home for its next matchup against UAlbany on Saturday, Feb. 11. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.