VESTAL, N.Y. - Visiting UMass Lowell ended the first half with a decisive 23-7 run and the first-place River Hawks (14-4, 5-0 America East) dealt Binghamton men's basketball (8-9, 0-4 AE) an 80-60 setback Saturday afternoon at Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center. 

Playing without injured leading scorer Tymu Chenery, BU was held to 25 first-half points and the Bearcats couldn't rally from the 18-point halftime deficit. The loss continued a tough start to league play for BU, which has faced three of the top-four teams in the conference preseason poll. Binghamton's first four America East opponents have a combined 14-1 record to start conference play.

The River Hawks shot 59 percent in the first half and used the big run to forge a 43-25 cushion. Binghamton drew no closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

Senior center Tariq Balogun scored a team-high 17 points with five rebounds and graduate forward Armon Harried added 16 points (7-of-12 FG) and seven boards. 

The Bearcats committed 14 turnovers that led to 21 UML points. 

"We have to be mentally tougher to not turn the ball over," head coach Levell Sanders said. "We are shooting ourselves in the foot all the time. We can guard teams but not if we are giving them 2-on-1 fast breaks because of the turnovers. If we correct that, it will give us an opportunity to be a better defensive team. I thought we executed pretty well offensively. The pace was how we wanted to play and Tariq (Balogun) did some good things. But some of the final passes didn't work out and we held the ball a little too long. But I like the way we executed our offense." 

Binghamton next heads out on a four-day, two-game road trip to New Hampshire (Thurs.) and Maine (Sat.).