Jan. 6, 2008

Box Score

VESTAL, N.Y. - The Boston University men's basketball team dropped its America East opener to Binghamton, 69-49, Sunday afternoon in the Events Center. The loss caps a five-game road swing for BU, which falls to 3-10 overall and 0-1 in the America East while Binghamton improves to 5-9 and 1-1 AE.

Binghamton went on a 13-2 run late in the second half to secure the win over Boston University. The Terriers scored just two points during a seven-minute span as the Bearcats made their rally. Boston U is 17-12 in conference season openers since joining what was then the North Atlantic conference in 1979.

Sophomore forward Scott Brittain (Oakville, Ont.) led the Terriers with 11 points and five rebounds to be BU's America East Player of the Game. Sophomore guard Carlos Strong (Portland, Maine) was second in scoring with eight points. Mike Gordon scored a game-best 17 points to be awarded Binghamton's America East Player of the Game.

BU scored the first seven points of the second half on a pair of Brittain lay ups and a three from red-shirt sophomore Tyler Morris (Indianapolis, Ind.) at 17:06 as part of a 9-2 run, but Binghamton responded with a lay in and a 3-pointer to push its advantage back to 41-30 at 15:09. The Terriers chipped away to cut Binghamton's lead to 50-43 with 9:24 remaining in the game, but the Bearcats went on their rally to push their advantage to 63-45 at 4:12.

The Terriers shot 47.6 percent in the second half (10-for-21), but it was not enough to counter Binghamton making 56.5 percent from the floor en route to a 60.0 field goal percentage for the game (27-for-45).

The first few minutes of the contest were a low-scoring affair as Binghamton held a slight 10-9 advantage at 12:29. But the Bearcats extended their lead to 18-10 at 10:04 on a two-foot jumper in the lane by Chretien Lukusa. Boston University fell behind 26-15 at 4:12 on a long jumper by Lazar Trifunovic and went into the locker room down, 34-21. The Terriers' scoring was spotty in the final nine minutes of the opening frame, as BU made just three field goals in that span.

The Terriers return home to play the team's first home game in a month, hosting UNH on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.