VESTAL, N.Y. - After having the team's final non-conference game canceled on Tuesday, Binghamton men's basketball will turn its attention to the upcoming weekend series at UMBC. The Bearcats (0-5, 0-2 America East) will face the first-place Retrievers (6-1, 2-0 AE) in afternoon tilts Sunday and Monday in Baltimore. Both games begin at 1 p.m. and will be show on ESPN3.

Binghamton opened conference play with a pair of defeats to Stony Brook last weekend - the second of which came in overtime. 

Sophomore guard Brenton Mills leads the Bearcats in scoring (14.4 ppg.). Classmate George Tinsley is averaging 9.4 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds. He also ranks 11th in the country in minutes played (37:52/game) after finishing No. 2 in that category as a freshman. 

The Bearcats have made nearly nine 3-pointers per game (8.8) and rank 72nd in the country. They also are 43rd in the country in 3-point reliance, with 45% of their team points coming via the 3-ball.  

QUICK HITS
•    This is Binghamton's 74th season of basketball, 20th at the Division I level
•    BU returns two starters and seven lettermen from a 10-19 team of a year ago
•    This is the first of back-to-back road weekends for the Bearcats 

About UMBC
•    Have won six straight after opening season with a 70-62 loss at Georgetown
•    Swept Albany on the road to open conference play last weekend
•    Also own wins over St. Francis, George Washington, Delaware and Coppin St.
•    Picked to finish second (with 2 first-place votes) in preseason poll
•    Have four players scoring in double figures in balanced attack
•    Return four starters and eight lettermen from 16-17 team (8-8 AE) that finished fourth in AE and reached semifinals     
   
 All-time series vs. UMBC
•    UMBC leads the all-time series 19-18
•    BU has won the last two after sweeping the season series last year by narrow margins of 79-75 (home) and 76-74 (road)
•    The sweep reversed a trend of seven straight UMBC wins dating back to 2016
•    UMBC is 12-5 at home in the series

Bearcats' final non-conference game canceled
Binghamton had its scheduled game on Dec. 22 against Central Connecticut State canceled, unrelated to COVID.   

Last Time Out
Binghamton began America East play by hosting Stony Brook on Dec. 19-20 and suffered a pair of losses, 73-59 and 80-70 (ot). After the lopsided loss on Saturday, BU had the ball at the end of regulation with a chance to earn the split but a turnover at the top of the key led to overtime, where the Seawolves scored 16 points to close out the win. Sophomores George Tinsley (11.5 ppg., 50% FG) and Dan Petcash (10.0 ppg., 50% 3-pt. FG) led the offense during the weekend. Sophomore Brenton Mills shook off an ankle injury to tally 14 points (4-of-9 3s) and five assists in Sunday's defeat.   

Last Time in Baltimore
Last Feb. 26 in Baltimore, the Bearcats faced a must-win, albeit improbable, against a UMBC team that had won five straight. It was the second-to-last game of the regular season and BU's 76-74 victory moved them into playoff position. Pierre Sarr hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 30 seconds left, George Tinsley blocked a potential game-winning layup with four seconds left and Richard Caldwell, Jr. sank two free throws with four seconds left. Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms scored a game-high 24 points and the Bearcats hung on in the frantic closing seconds as the Retrievers rebounded an intentional free throw miss with 2.1 seconds left but a putback was released after the horn.

Playing for the "s"
Binghamton and UMBC have similarly-named home facilities. The Bearcats play in the 5,142-seat Events Center, opened in 2004. The Retrievers countered in 2018 by opening the singular, 6,000-seat Event Center. Both facilities remain two of the finest in the America East.    

Early OT games
After playing just two overtime games over the last four years, BU has quickly played two OT contests in its first five games this season. Add in a four-point loss at Marist on Dec. 6, and BU has played three games when it had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the final minute of regulation.  

Hinckson now eligible, makes his Bearcat debut against Stony Brook 
Junior forward Christian Hinckson benefited from the NCAA blanket waiver announcement on Dec. 16 and made his BU debut Dec. 19 vs. Stony Brook, narrowly missing a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds. He has quickly moved into the starting rotation after making 42 starts in two seasons at Manhattan College. He averaged 7.2 points and 5.5 rebounds last season, playing more than 29 minutes per game. He ranked fourth in the MAAC in steals (1.5/game).  

Mills off to quick start in scoring column 
Sophomore guard Brenton Mills went for 20 and 19 points in his first two games and leads the team with a 14.4 scoring average. Despite an ankle injury that cost him several days of practice and an off-game back after the injury, Mills is averaging a team-high 13 shot attempts per game and is shooting a team-high 44% from 3-point range. In his four starts, Mills is averaging 17.0 points.  

Bruce opens with weekend block party, now out with injury  
Senior center Thomas Bruce celebrated his return to the floor after 1,013 days away by recording six blocks in the opening two games. The 6-foot-9 post player ranked first in the America East in blocks (3.0) and 10th in the NCAA. Bruce, however, suffered an injury during practice on Dec. 15 and has been sidelined since with concussion symptoms. 

Bearcats had dry run of playing same opponent on back-to-back days  
The Bearcats opened their season with a home-and-home, weekend series against MAAC member Marist on Dec. 5-6. Both games were decided in the final minute. Binghamton rallied from six points down in the final 3:43 of Saturday's opener, forcing overtime with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. The Bearcats then had a shot to win the game in the closing seconds of OT, but a missed 3-pointer and subsequent free throws led to a 68-65 loss. One day later, BU nearly rallied from 11 points down in the final 3:27, and had a shot to take the lead with 13 seconds left before free throws closed out a 64-60 loss.