GAME NOTES: Following a pair of losses on Saturday in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Tip-Off, the Binghamton Bearcats and Navy Midshipmen will battle head to head in a non-conference clash at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Binghamton started the season off to an 0-2 start after games as part of the Tip-Off preliminary round against Notre Dame and Providence. The Bearcats finally picked up a win against sub-division opponent Hartwick, then dropped back into the loss column with a 78-64 defeat against Manhattan.

Navy's start to the season has been even worse. The Midshipmen are 0-4 with losses against extremely tough non-conference competition, which includes a season-opening defeat against Michigan State and a recent Saturday loss to Northeastern, 68-44.

Navy and Binghamton have met twice on the hardwood in their series history, which Navy leads, 2-0. The two teams met in a clash last season, in which Navy came away with a 68-50 victory.

Manhattan didn't completely overwhelm Binghamton on Saturday, but the Jaspers were able to connect on 49.1 percent shooting from the field in the contest. Willie Rodriguez did his best to keep his Bearcats in the game, as the guard netted a team-high 23 points, adding eight assists to his stat line. Marlon Beck II chipped in with 10 points in the losing effort, while Justin McFadden added 10 points of his own before he fouled out of the game. Binghamton connected on 42.2 percent of its shot tries in the game.

The team's leading scorer, Dusan Perovic, came off the bench for Binghamton and netted nine points. Going into the contest with Navy, Perovic still leads the team in scoring with 10.5 ppg. In fact, Perovic is the only Binghamton player to average a scoring total in the double digits this season. Romello Walker's 4.5 rpg average is the best through four games played on the team, which is scoring an average of just 57.2 ppg and allowing 69.2 ppg to opponents.

Navy looked to be in decent form early on against Northeastern on Saturday, as the Midshipmen hit 45.5 percent of their shots in the first half. But the team never made a trip to the free-throw line in the opening period, and Navy found itself down at halftime to the Huskies, 30-23. Brandon Venturini led Navy in the contest with nine points, while Will Kelly chipped in with eight points in the loss. The Midshipmen netted 45.2 percent of their shots - not a bad stat. The Huskies simply generated more offense than Navy in the contest.

It's been a dismal start to the season for Navy, especially on the offensive end. The Midshipmen are averaging just 51.8 ppg this season, and are allowing opponents to score 78.0 ppg against them. That's a horrible differential. Venturini leads the team in scoring with an 8.5 ppg mark, which went up after his nine-point outing Saturday. The team's leading rebounder is Edward Alade, who is bringing down 3.8 boards per outing, and is second on the team with 8.3 ppg.

Navy may be off to an extremely poor start on the season, but a large part of the team's results so far have to do with the level of competition the team has played. The Midshipmen should be able to handle Binghamton, of the America East Conference, like the have in the two previous meetings with the Bearcats.