The Binghamton men’s basketball team opened its season on Monday night with an 85-47 loss at Syracuse. After significant struggles with turnovers tampering the Bearcats’ scoring opportunities, they entered the half facing an 18-point deficit that they were unable to dig into. Ultimately, they were outscored by double-digits once more in the second half in their first loss of the 2025-26 campaign.

“I thought we came out a little nervous, and I think that nervousness carried over and didn’t allow us to execute as well as we needed to,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “I thought we had some uncharacteristic mistakes. We turned the ball over a ton, which didn’t help us out. I think they finished with 21 more possessions than we had. So that was the overall feeling, I thought we didn’t handle their physicality as well as we needed to.”

Syracuse (1-0) quickly made its presence known on the key, jumping ahead to a 10-0 lead in the first three minutes of play, propelled by eight points from inside the paint. Coming out of the first media timeout, Binghamton (0-1) shifted into a 1-3-1 zone defense and soon after, a layup from senior center Demetrius Lilley made it a 10-2 game. Continuing to apply pressure, a jumper from junior forward Zyier Beverly cut the Bearcats’ deficit to 10-4, but the hosts embarked on another 10-point run to take a 16-point lead.

After a tip-in from junior guard Bryson Wilson gave the Bearcats their third score of the game, the Orange responded with a four-point run of their own to build their lead to 24-6. Binghamton’s offense showed sparks in the closing minutes of the half when graduate student guard Jackson Benigni drilled a three before being fouled on his next attempt, where he sank all three shots to cut the Syracuse lead to 25-12. Binghamton found the net only once more through the remainder of a half in which turnovers plagued the Bearcats, as Syracuse nursed a 32-14 lead when the buzzer sounded.

“I thought the first half, we played [the 1-3-1 zone] a little bit better, but we just put it in recently, just because we knew we were going to need it a little bit against Syracuse because we were short-handed,” Sanders said. “We were really trying to play man-to-man, being a little more aggressive this year, but because we are down four players, we gotta switch it up a little bit. So we just put it in, and we’ll be better down the road. So I thought it was solid.”

Coming out of the half, Binghamton managed to cut down on its turnovers, surrendering just one through the first seven minutes of the second half. However, at the same time, the Orange’s shooting efficiency woes came to a halt and a pair of successful free-throw attempts from junior guard Jeremiah Quigley only managed to cut the deficit to 51-26.

Binghamton continued to fight with an 11-6 run minutes later, jump-started by an and-one layup from Lilley. But with only nine minutes remaining in the match, the deficit proved impossible to overcome as the Bearcats fell 85-47.

“I thought [Lilley] was a presence, force in the paint, finishing. I think he had 17 points, 13 rebounds overall,” Sanders said. “And so I thought he was good, obviously. I thought he had too many turnovers. I want to say he had five or six turnovers, so I think he needs to be better in that aspect. But, he’s going to be a guy that we’re going to rely on a lot. “

Leading the way for Binghamton in his Bearcat debut was Lilley, who tallied 17 points alongside 13 rebounds and a pair of blocks on the night. Also reaching double-digits for the Bearcats was Beverly, who finished the match with 11 points, three rebounds and a lone block. The Bearcats struggled with turnovers throughout the patch, losing the battle 22-5 and allowing 24 points off turnovers to the Orange.

“Our spacing and ball movement wasn’t good,” Sanders said. “I thought we held on to the ball a little too long. I thought we had some opportunities to penetrate and kick it to make them chase us a little bit. But I thought we held onto it too much, and that caused us some issues. One of the keys to the game was our spacing because they got great size and athleticism. We wanted to kind of keep the space, the floor space.”

Binghamton will look to claim its first victory of the season when it hosts RIT on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Tipoff is set for 6:07 p.m. on the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York