@UVM 72, Binghamton 61 (Thursday) - @Binghamton 69, BU 49

My apologies for not blogging after Thursday's game at Vermont - I've been especially preoccupied with the Press & Sun-Bulletin lately, as I will begin my full-time duties on the news desk tomorrow evening.

Anyway, the Bearcats split their first two conference games, opening the AE portion of their schedule with an 11-point loss on Thursday at Patrick Gymnasium. Marques Blakely was the key, as I expected, with 21 points. Blakely, Cieplicki and Trimboli combined for 55 of the Catamounts' 71 points, which I would consider both a blessing - they won the game - and a curse - their bench is bad - for UVM.

The Catamounts outplayed BU with a 1-3-1 zone that seemed to suffocate Lazar Trifunovic, who still ended up with 10 points and 9 rebounds but would still be the first to tell you the loss was on his shoulders.

Mike Gordon paced Binghamton with 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting. Again, I consider this a good sign - even if Bing was significantly outplayed on Thursday.

Richie Forbes came off the bench on Thursday, but was back in the starting lineup today against Boston - a team that's really in trouble.

Let me say this right off the bat - if Dennis Wolff doesn't return to the sidelines for the Terriers next year, BU's AD can point straight to today's performance. Wolffie was significantly out-coached by Kevin Broadus, a first-year coach unfamiliar with the ins and outs of AE play. The Terriers just looked miserable.

The Bearcats' very slow start today was troubling, but they played like the much better team as the first half wound down. Milos actually nailed a couple threes, including the heartbreaker at the very end of the half, a shot that stretched a 10-point Bing lead --- with Boston having just turned the ball over with a chance to cut it to 8 --- to 13.

Lazar again established himself as the game's dominant big man this afternoon, with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and adding four assists. And Mike Gordon showed flashes of his junior year self, including a one-handed dunk early on that seemed to fire the Bearcats up after that slow start.

There were a couple of scary moments in today's game; when Tyler Morris opened the scoring with a wide-open three (and no, it was not Richie Forbes who missed the assignment - it was Gordon), and when the Terriers began to rain threes early in the second half to start slicing the lead into single digits. But the Bearcats appear to have learned how to step on a team's throat when they've got them down, and that bodes well for their immediate future.

I'm giving thought to heading to Hartford on Wednesday for the Bearcats' next contest.