GAME NOTES: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off event continues Saturday with a non-conference clash between the Binghamton Bearcats and the Manhattan Jaspers at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Binghamton won two consecutive exhibition matchups prior to the official start of the season, but since then the Bearcats haven't been so lucky. The team has dropped two of three contests so far, but is coming off an 82-51 win over Hartwick Wednesday.

Manhattan is 0-2 to start the new season just one year after making it to the NCAA Tournament out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Jaspers have played some tough competition, dropping a road contest to Florida State to open the season and then an overtime thriller against UMass, 77-68.

This matchup between Binghamton, of the America East Conference, and Manhattan will be the fifth in program history. The Jaspers own the all-time series lead, 3-1, with a win over the Bearcats as recently as the 2011-12 campaign.

Binghamton needed a win in order to pull itself out of an 0-2 slump to start the year, especially after a mere 44-point outing against Providence in the Tip-Off even preliminary round. The Bearcats got just that with a 31-point victory over Hartwick on Wednesday, when the team connected on 46.8 percent of its shot attempts from the floor. The 82 points for the Bearcats are the most by the team in a single game this season. Dusan Perovic led Binghamton in the contest with 18 points, hitting 8-of-12 shots from the field. Yosef Yacob chipped in with 14 points in 22 minutes of action, while Binghamton's bench netted 28 points in the lopsided win.

The 82-point outburst for the Bearcats is the obvious outlier so far, but the team is hoping it can replicate those figures in future contests. The team is averaging 55.3 ppg as a unit through three contests, and is giving up 66.3 ppg to opponents. Perovic is the only Binghamton player to average a scoring total in the double digits to this point of the season, checking into the battle against Manhattan with 11.0 ppg. The team as a whole hasn't been very adept on the glass, bringing down 34.7 rpg (led by Romello Walker's 4.3 rpg average).

Manhattan and UMass proved to be an extremely even match, and had the Jaspers had the homecourt advantage over the Minutemen, perhaps the outcome would have been different. In any case, the Jaspers connected on 45.8 percent of their shot tries in the overtime loss, and made just 50 percent (8-of-16) from the free-throw line. Emmy Andujar led Manhattan with a double-double that included 21 points and 10 rebounds, adding in five assists to his stat line. Shane Richards chipped in with 13 points, and Tyler Wilson poured in 10 points with five assists in the 77-68 loss. The Jaspers only grabbed 29 rebounds in the game, compared to 45 for Massachusetts.

Since Manhattan lost its three top scorers from a year ago, the team has already had to look elsewhere for sources of points. Andujar has stepped up through two games, averaging 15.0 ppg with a team-best 9.5 rpg mark. Richards sits right there at the top with Andujar, averaging 15.0 ppg of his own, while forward Ashton Pankey chips in with 10.5 ppg. The Jaspers will have to up their scoring from 67.0 ppg if they want to be competitive in this tournament and on the season.

The good news for Manhattan is that, despite the team's 82-point effort against Hartwick, Binghamton is a poor offensive team. So the Jaspers should still be able to get by even if they hit their average of 67 points in the game.