VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton men's basketball begins a two-game road trip with a stop in Lowell on Saturday. The Bearcats (12-12, 3-6 America East) will face the River Hawks (9-15, 3-6 AE) at 2 p.m. at the Costello Athletic Center. The teams are tied for sixth place in the conference standings. 

After Saturday, BU heads north to Burlington, Vt. to face the undefeated, league-leading Catamounts Monday night.

QUICK HITS
•    This is Binghamton's 70th season of basketball, 16th at the Division I level
•    The Bearcats have have won three of their last four and sit in a tie for sixth place in the America East alongside UMass Lowell
•    BU ranks fifth in the country (kenpom.com) in bench minutes. Eleven BU players are averaging 12+ minutes and nobody is averaging more than 27 min./game
•    Bearcats are averaging 70.9 ppg. on offense, 10 points higher than their 2015-16 average (60.9)   

Last time out
•    UMBC shot 64% in the second half and made 12 three-pointers in the game to storm past BU 92-74 on Wednesday
•    Senior guard Marlon Beck netted 11 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau for his career. Beck's steal and uncontested layup with 1:05 left got him to 1K
•    Juniors Willie Rodriguez (19 pts.) and Bobby Ahearn (15) each shot 6-of-9
•    The game drew 4,939 fans — the largest crowd since BU hosted the 2009 America East championship game — also vs. UMBC (a 61-51 BU win). The loudest contingent were the school-record 1,582 students in the south end bleachers.  

Pair of 1,000-point scorers    
Junior forward Willie Rodriguez (1,026 pts.) and senior guard Marlon Beck (1,000 pts.) have reached the 1,000-point career milestone in successive games. Rodriguez hit the mark early in the second half at Maine on Jan. 29 Beck did it late in the home game against UMBC on Feb. 1. Rodriguez became the 19th BU player and Beck the 20th player to reach 1,000 points in BU's 69-year basketball history. Just two previous four-year Division I players (Troy Hailey and Mike Gordon) have reached the plateau. The last time two BU teammates reached the 1,000-point mark in the same season was Jeffrey St. Fort and Mike Wright during the 2001-02 season. Like Rodriguez, St. Fort did it in three years.

A win over UMass Lowell would ...
•    Give BU its fourth win in the last five games
•    Give BU 13 wins — tied for the most in seven years (2009-10 team went 13-18)
•    Give BU a split of the season series with UMass Lowell

About UMass Lowell
•    The River Hawks are a one-man wrecking crew. Redshirt junior Jahad Thomas leads the team in scoring (17.5 ppg.), rebounding (9.4 rpg.), assists (4.5 apg.), steals (34) and minutes (33.0 mpg.) all from the guard position. He is shooting a remarkable 61% from the field.
•    UML has dropped five consecutive conference games since opening with a 3-1 league mark
•    UML lost at Albany 90-77 on Wednesday despite putting four in double figures and shooting 52 percent
•    This is UML's final season before it becomes eligible for postseason after joining Division I and the AE in 2013        

All-time series vs. UMass Lowell
•    UML leads 8-4 thanks primarily to a 4-1 mark when both teams were Division II members of the New England Collegiate Conference (1999-00)
•    As members of the America East, UML leads 4-3 after winning 79-75 in Vestal on Jan. 8
•    In that game last month, visiting UML shot 55 percent in the second half and scored 52 points in the paint to hold off Binghamton. The Bearcats trimmed a 15-point second-half deficit to two, 77-75, with 21 seconds left after Willie Rodriguez drilled a three-pointer. But Lowell made a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left to complete the scoring. Binghamton missed its final two shots in the closing 10 seconds. Rodriguez netted a team-high and season-high 23 points with nine rebounds to lead four players in double figures.  
 
Beck stepping up scoring
Senior guard Marlon Beck picked up his scoring pace as he drew near and reached the 1,000-point mark. In his last 11 games, Beck is averaging 11.0 points and has chipped in nearly three threes per game. After reaching double figures just once in his first 14 games, Beck has posted double-digit points in eight of his last 10 and ranks second in the AE in threes per game (2.7 in AE play). Already the all-time three-point leader, Beck has 202 career threes.

Rose raising his assist-to-turnover ratio
Sophomore guard Timmy Rose has moved among the conference leaders in assists (5th, 3.9) and assist-to-turnover ratio (7th, 2.2). His ratio ranks 84th in the country.

Rodriguez back in form
Junior forward Willie Rodriguez has rounded into form after an early-season hamstring injury limited him to nine minutes in the team's first 10 games. He has hit double figures in nine of his last 11 games, including seven games of 15+ points. In his last 11 games, Rodriguez is averaging 15.0 ppg. He is shooting 59% from inside the arc.   

Beck sets school record for career three-pointers
Senior guard Marlon Beck hit a three from the left foul line extended with 12:28 left in the first half against Lowell on Jan. 8 and that trey set the new mark for all-time made three-pointers (183). He entered the game tied with 1,000-point scorer Troy Hailey (2003-07) and made 3-of-8 to stand alone atop the list.   

Bearcats have made meteoric rise in offensive statistics
Binghamton currently ranks 54th in the nation (out of 351) in made three-pointers (199), 66th in three-point percentage (.377) and 85th in assists (337). Last season, the Bearcats ranked 325th in assists and 315th in three-pointers. The team's current scoring output of 70.9 is 10 points higher than the 2015-16 average (60.9). Three times this season BU has shot above 60 percent for an entire game and seven times the Bearcats have shot 60 percent or higher for a half, including a program record 73 percent (16-of-22) in the first half against Loyola on Dec. 10. In that game, BU made its first nine shots of the game — another school record.

BU bench and depth paying dividends
Binghamton has 11 players averaging 12+ minutes in 2016-17 and their bench minutes rank fifth in the nation (kenpom). The bench has outscored opposing benches in 14 of 21 games. Twelve times BU's bench has contributed 25 or more points. Because of depth and most recently, injuries, coach Dempsey has used 12 different starting lineups this season.

The "3" ball is best indicator of BU success
Through 24 games, BU is 11-2 when outshooting opponents from three-point range (3-pt FG%) and 1-10 when not.