Maine Rally Tops BU Men

The Binghamton Bearcats men's basketball team dropped its America East opener to the Maine Black Bears 76-73 Saturday afternoon at the Events Center.  The Bearcats were in the lead 34-27 at halftime but were outscored 49-39 in the second half.  The win evens the Black Bears' record at 1-1 in conference play.  They fell to Stony Brook 71-70 in their conference opener on Wednesday.

Maine shot just 39 percent from the field in the first half but upped that to 55 percent in the second half and ended by hitting 48 percent of their shots.  The Bearcats shot 42 percent for the game but made just 6-22 tries from three-point range for just a 27 percent conversion.

J.C.Show paced the Bearcats with 20 points.  Thomas Bruce also scored in double figures with a dozen along with seven rebounds for BU after missing the two previous games with an ankle injury.

Maine was led by Ilker Er who notched 23 points making 10 of 14 shots.  Aaron Calixte scored 18 points for the Black Bears including making eight of nine of his free throws.

The loss drops Binghamton's overall record to 9-7 while Maine goes to 4-13.  Binghamton will travel for the next two games.  The Bearcats head to Durham to meet the New Hampshire Wildcats Wednesday at 7 PM (645 air on News Radio 1290 WNBF) and they play the Hartford Hawks in West Hartford at 2 PM on Saturday.