VESTAL, N.Y. - After sitting out a week due to conference schedule reshuffling, Binghamton men's basketball returns to action this weekend when the Bearcats (1-12, 1-9 AE) host New Hampshire (7-6, 6-4 AE) at the Events Center. The teams will square off at 2 p.m. on Saturday and again on Sunday. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN3.

QUICK HITS
• This is Binghamton's 74th season of basketball, 20th at the Division I level
• BU begins first of two straight home weekends after waiting through a bye week

About UNH
• Have won three of last four, including a weekend sweep at Stony Brook on Jan. 16-17 and a home split with Albany last weekend
• Also swept Hartford and split with Maine earlier in the season
• Ranks sixth in AE in offense (68.2 ppg.) and fifth in defense (66.2 ppg. allowed)
• Leads AE in rebounding for second straight year (38.5/game)
• Led by all-conference forward Nick Guadarrama (15.2 ppg., 6.5 rpg.)
• Junior forward Jayden Martinez (12.8 ppg.) leads AE in rebounding (8.6/game)
• Were picked to finish third in AE preseason poll after going 15-15 and finishing tied for fourth in standings (8-8) last season    
   
 All-time series vs. UNH
• This is tied for the most even of any BU conference series with UNH holding a slim 21-19 edge
• UNH has won 11 of the last 13 and swept last year's season series
• BU is 8-11 all-time vs. UNH at home
• UNH won 77-69 in Vestal on Jan. 25 and 89-70 in Durham one month later
• BU won 10 of 11 between 2005-10 before UNH took control of the series
• In last meeting with playoff spot on line, Sam Sessoms scored 38 points but UNH led by 18 at the half and closed the game with a 24-4 run to hold off Sessoms (30 in second half) and a charging BU in the regular season finale
• BU swept the season series two years ago
 
Last Time Out
Binghamton had an unforeseen "bye" week last week after a conference shuffle of games left the healthy Bearcats on the sidelines. Before that, BU dropped a pair of home games to UMass Lowell back on Jan. 16-17, falling 92-78 and 77-67. The Bearcats put five players in double figures each game but their defense let them down, allowing the River Cats to shoot an average of 51% over the weekend and score 84.5 points per game. Sophomore guard Tyler Bertram scored a career-high 20 points to spark the offense on Saturday and backcourt mate Brenton Mills added a team-high 16 points on Sunday.

America East Tournament format revealed; all 10 teams eligible
The 2021 America East Championship will include all 10 teams (12-game minimum, COVID eligible), begin the first week of March and be played over two weeks at multiple campus sites. The top two seeds will earn automatic byes into the semifinals to be held during Championship Week hosted at a predetermined campus site (one site for men). The remaining teams will compete in Playoff Pods the week prior with the #3 and #4 seeds serving as Playoff Pod hosts. The balance of each pod could be filled true to seed or by geographic proximity. Teams will not move more than one seed line when filling out the bracket. Each Playoff Pod champion will advance to Championship Week, setting up the conference's final four teams to battle for the league title with both semifinals and the championship game at the same site. The men's championship game is on Saturday, March 13 and will be carried on ESPN2 at 11 a.m.

Sophomore class carrying Bearcats
Binghamton is led by its core of eight sophomores. The group, led by Brenton Mills (15.0 ppg.) and Tyler Bertram (10.8 ppg.), accounts for 89% of the team's scoring (746 of 840 pts.) and 84% of the team's total minutes (1950 of 2312 team minutes).

Mills is team's go-to scorer 
Sophomore guard Brenton Mills continues to pace the Bearcats' offense. Setting aside his one non-start (Dec. 19 vs. Stony Brook) after sustaining an ankle injury, Mills is averaging 15.9 points in 12 starts. He has scored 15 or more points in four of his last five outings and ranks fourth in the America East in scoring (15.0 ppg.) and third in 3-point percentage (41%) and fifth in 3-pointers per game (2.2). He has three 20+ point games so far this season.  

Bertram heating up, shooting 40 percent from beyond arc in last eight
Sophomore guard Tyler Bertram has quickly emerged as a deep scoring threat in his first season as a Bearcat. In his last eight games, Bertram is averaging 14.3 points on 40% shooting from beyond the arc. He averaged 15.5 points on 50% shooting in the UMass Lowell series and now has reached double figures in seven of his last eight games, including a career-high 20 in Saturday's Lowell game. Bertram currently ranks second in the AE in 3-pointers per game (2.4) and fourth in 3-point percentage (39%).   

Conference trends in first half of series play
As the league moved last the halfway point of conference play on Jan. 16-17, here are the early trends of the new two-game, weekend series'. In the first 23 series', AE teams recorded 12 sweeps and 11 weekend splits. Home court didn't produce an advantage as the home team was 21-25. The road team particularly made its mark in the Sunday games, going 14-9 in the Game 2s.

Bruce back in lineup after month away with symptoms
Senior 6-foot-9 center Thomas Bruce returned to the lineup Jan. 17 against UMass Lowell after missing nine games with concussion symptoms. Back in December, Bruce celebrated his return to the floor after 1,013 days away by recording six blocks in the opening two games of the season - his first game action since the final game of the 2017-18 season (Feb. 27, 2018). Unfortunately, however, he then suffered an injury during practice on Dec. 15 and was sidelined for a month. In his minutes-capped return to game action, Bruce recorded six rebounds and three blocks in 19 minutes off the bench.  

Hjalmarsson making good on extra minutes
Sophomore guard Hakon Hjalmarsson had a strong weekend series against UMass Lowell with a combined 21 points and six assists in the two games. After not logging more than 11 minutes in any game since Dec. 20, Hjalmarsson played 18:40 in each of the UML games, shot 50% from the floor (7-of-14) and had a net plus-minus of 15 — the only Bearcat in the positive.

Stat notes between Game 1 and Game 2 of conference weekend series'
Comparing the statistics from Game 1 and Game 2 of the America East weekend series' yields several notable variances for the Bearcats. Sophomore guard Dan Petcash has bumped his scoring average to 10.2 ppg. for Game 2s (up from 4.4 ppg. in openers). Classmate Tyler Bertram has been more dominant in Game 1s with a team-high 15.4 ppg. Bertram drops to 9.8 ppg. in Game 2s. As a team, BU is shooting slightly better on Sundays (41%) than Saturdays (39%) but much better at the free throw line (71% in Game 2s after 64% in Game 1s). The Bearcats are averaging two more points on Sundays (66.0 ppg.).

Tough losses at the wire
Four of Binghamton's losses have come after BU had the ball inside one minute left with a chance to take the lead/win the game. Five of the losses have either come by seven or fewer points or overtime.