VESTAL, N.Y. - Senior forward Nehemiah Benson led four double-digit scorers with 16 points and Binghamton men's basketball (10-10, 2-5 America East) held visiting NJIT (5-15, 1-7 AE) to 29 second-half points in a 75-66 win Thursday night at Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center. The win, Binghamton's second in a row, lifted its home record to 7-2 this season.

Benson, the America East leader in field goal percentage (65%), hit 7-of-11 and also pulled down eight rebounds. He scored 10 points in the first half as the Bearcats reversed a three-point deficit and led 38-37 at intermission. 

In the second half, an early 10-2 run featured four points by Benson and gave the Bearcats a 48-41 edge with 16:23 left. Binghamton pushed its lead to 12 points midway through the period before both teams slowed the scoring pace late in the game with a combined two baskets over 5+ minutes. The Bearcats extended their lead to as many as 17 points before settling on the final nine-point cushion.

"To hold them to 29 points in the second half is what we want to do defensively," head coach Levell Sanders said. "I liked our intensity on defense in the second half and then when we don't turn the ball over, we have a chance to be good. Offensively, the more points we can score in the paint, the easier it is for us. We knew the battle inside would be important and to score 46 in there is what we want. Overall it was a good team win. Now we have to keep it going."

Senior center Tariq Balogun tallied 14 points in 23 minutes, graduate forward Armon Harried added 11 points and a team-high nine boards and BU welcomed back leading scorer Tymu Chenery after a three-game injury absence, and Chenery contributed 12 points in 14 minutes. Graduate point guard Symir Torrence, fifth in the nation in assists (7.1/game), raised his season average with nine assists. 

The Bearcats next travel to Burlington for a test Saturday afternoon against unbeaten league-leader Vermont.