Get the Orange Some Milk for the Dunk Party

The Syracuse Orange and Binghamton Bearcats each began the 2025-26 season on a cool night in Central New York as the Bearcats traveled an hour north on Interstate-81 to Syracuse, New York, for a bout with the Orange.

Syracuse was on the offensive glass early, scoring all six of their opening points off of offensive rebounds, with junior guard Naithan George scoring first on a jumper followed by a hook shot and jumper by sophomore forward Donnie Freeman to go ahead 6-0.

Just before the 17-minute mark, true freshman guard Kiyan Anthony checked in for his first-ever collegiate game that counts.

Binghamton senior center Demetrius Lilley scored off of his own offensive rebound with a putback to give the Bearcats their first points of the game, down 10-2, atht e14:39 mark.

Junior forward Zyier Beverly would score off of a jumper on Binghamton's next possession to make it 10-4 Syracuse.

The lead rose back up to double-digits on a jumper by sophomore forward Tyler Betsey that brought the score to 14-4.

Binghamton's next bucket came inside 6:30 to play in the first half on a tip in by junior guard Bryson Wilson to make it 20-6 Syracuse.

Orange true freshman guard Kiyan Anthony, son of Orange alum and 2003 national champion, scored his first point when he went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe at the 4:35 mark of the first half.

Bearcats' graduate guard Jackson Benigni made the first three by either team when he connected from long range at the 4:53 mark to bring the score to 24-9 Orange.

Benigni was fouled by freshman guard Luke Fennell in the act of shooting a three at the 4:08 mark, responding by making all three freebies which got Binghamton into double-figures, down 25-12.

The first three-point shot made by either side in this game came with 2:51 remaining in the first half when Betsey's deep shot rose the Orange up to a 28-12 advantage.

At the break, Syracuse led 32-14.

Both teams came out in the second half with an alley-oop dunk apiece, the Orange first when George found senior forward William Kyle, III, followed by Bearcats' junior guard Jeremiah Quigley to Beverly. This alleys brought the score 34-16 Orange.

Anthony's back-to-back field goals, a jumper followed by a dunk, stretched Syracuse's lead out to 29, ahead 49-20.

With 8:26 remaining, the Orange had rolled ahead 63-37, with Kyle leading all players with 14 points and Beverly atop all Bearcats with 11.

Syracuse true freshman forward Sadiq White, Jr.'s, lay-in at the 8:02 mark meant that eight of Syracuse's 11 players had scored who had seen time in the game at this point.

A dunk by White with 5:41 to go rolled the Orange ahead by 30+ by a score of 71-40.

Unlike some articles where the title is never brought to a resolution in the body of the story, this article will tell you that Syracuse dunked the ball almost as many times as a row of Oreos (typically 13-15) find their way into milk, ending the game with 11 slams.

In their 85-47 victory, Freeman had 20, Kyle had 16, Anthony had 15, Geoge had 14, and Betsey had 10 for the Orange.

The Bearcats were led by Lilley with 17 points, followed by Beverly with 11.

Syracuse is now 1-0 on the season, while Binghamton heads back down Interstate-81 at 0-1.