VESTAL, N.Y. - Visiting UMBC (10-7, 3-1 America East) stretched a 12-point halftime lead with 63 percent shooting in the second half and the Retrievers toppled Binghamton men's basketball (4-16, 0-5 AE) 78-60 Monday afternoon at the Events Center. The MLK Day matchup drew a season-high 1,953 fans.

The Bearcats led by five early on before UMBC went on a 20-5 run to take control midway through the first half. Still plagued with just seven healthy scholarship players, Binghamton drew no closer than 11 points throughout the second half. 

Senior guard Wes Peterson, Jr. and junior forward Zyier Beverly paced the Bearcats with 18 points apiece. Peterson added a game-high eight rebounds in 39+ minutes. Beverly condensed his scoring into 21 minutes. Graduate guard Jackson Benigni added 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc.

"UMBC came in here and played their style of basketball," head coach Levell Sanders said. "They make you play for much of the shot clock and wear you down. I felt like our guys were winded and couldn't stop their guards from driving. I thought their style of play would be a challenge and it was. We didn't get much going offensively, especially in the first half. With the situation we are in, we need everyone to play well at the same time ... we don't have the luxury of guys having an off-game. We have to be able to play for 40 minutes and we have a small margin for error because we don't have the firepower to come back from behind." 

The Bearcats depart Wednesday for a two-game, four-day road trek to UNH (Thurs.) and Maine (Sat.).