CANCUN, Mexico - After a practice day and tournament banquet on Monday, Binghamton men's basketball will open play at the Cancun Challenge on Tuesday when the Bearcats (1-3) face Big Sky member Montana State (2-2) at 12:30 p.m. (EST) at the Hard Rock Hotel Mayan Riviera Convention Center.
Binghamton is the first America East team to compete at the 10-year-old event, though head coach
Tommy Dempsey has taken a team here before. Dempsey's 2009 Rider University team went 1-1 to take runnerup honors in the Mayan Division.
With a win on Tuesday, BU would advance to the Mayan Division title game and face either Cal State Northridge or Southeast Missouri at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The losing teams from Tuesday meet in the 12:30 p.m. third-place game.
In its last game Saturday at Evansville (Ind.), BU trailed 23-7 out of the gate and never made up the difference in a 66-61 loss, despite holding the hosts to nine field goals in the second half. The Bearcats cut their margin to 55-54 with 3:13 left but the hosts made 6 free throws in the final 0:39. Junior guard
J.C. Show scored 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting (6-of-7 3s). Junior guard
Everson Davis had 12 points and junior center
Thomas Bruce added 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks.
Show leads the team in scoring (16.5 ppg.). Bruce is averaging 15.5 points and 9.0 rebounds and sophomore guard
Fard Muhammad is chipping in 8.0 points per game. The Bearcats are shooting a solid 46 percent from the floor and are averaging 70 points on offense.
Montana State is coming off a 71-58 loss at Louisiana Tech on Saturday but the Bobcats are averaging 82 points and nearly 10 three-pointers early in the season. They were picked to finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference in both preseason polls and return all five starters from a 16-16 team of a year ago. That squad went 11-7 in conference play and finished fifth. Like BU, Montana State played four Canadian Tour games in August.
Junior guard Tyler Hall (1,317 career points), who averaged 23.1 ppg. last year as a first team all-conference player, was selected as Preseason Conference MVP. Hall is averaging 22.0 points this season. Sophomore Harald Frey (19.3 ppg. this season) was Big Sky Freshman of Year last season.
NOTE: The official tournament website is www.cancunchallenge.net. Follow the Cancun Challenge on Facebook (TCSCancunChallenge), Instagram (cancunchallenge), and Twitter (@CancunChallenge).
