The University of Miami men’s basketball team defeated the Binghamton Bearcats (1-2), 88-64, Sunday afternoon at the Watsco Center to move to 2-0 on the season.

Graduate student Nijel Pack and senior Jalen Blackmon co-led the Hurricanes in scoring with 17 points each, while senior Matthew Cleveland paced Miami on the glass, totaling 11 rebounds in the game.

“Our consistency was not there, mostly [with] inconsistencies at the defensive end,” head coach Jim Larrañaga said. “Our defense in the first half was pretty solid, but in the second half we gave up too many threes and too many layups…[We were] pretty much balanced in our scoring [with] four guys in double-figures.”
Four Hurricanes reached double-figures in the game – Blackmon, Pack, freshman Jalil Bethea (13) and senior Brandon Johnson (10) – and ten total Hurricanes scored in the contest.

Miami was extremely efficient at the charity stripe, knocking down 84 percent (21-of-25) of its free-throw attempts.

Binghamton took an early 10-4 lead in the contest, but Miami strung together a 20-2 run in the middle part of the first half to go up by 18 points, 34-16, with five minutes to play in the frame.

The Hurricanes shot 50 percent from 3-point range (8-of-16) in the first half and knocked down three in the final six minutes to take a 46-25 lead into halftime.

The Bearcats opened the second half on an 8-2 run to cut Miami’s lead to 15 in the opening minutes of the frame. However, the Hurricanes maintained their double-digit lead for the rest of the game as seven different Hurricanes recorded a bucket in the second half.

Ultimately, Miami outscored Binghamton, 42-39, in the final 20 minutes to secure the 88-64 victory.
Miami is back at the Watsco Center on Sunday when it hosts Coppin State at 2 p.m. The game is set to air on ACC Network Extra.