VESTAL, N.Y. — Le Moyne’s rivalry with Binghamton isn’t exactly organic. It wasn’t based upon years and years of hard-fought battles. Instead, it was announced with a press release.
“Binghamton and Le Moyne
will start a new tradition with the creation of the ‘Battle for the Interstate’ rivalry between the two I-81 schools that are separated by 81 miles,” it read on Binghamton’s athletics website on November 28, 2023.
Notorious former Syracuse booster Adam Weitsman was credited with the coordination of the event and likely played a hand in the commissioning of the New York State-shaped glass trophy.
When Le Moyne made the jump from Division II to Division I for the 2023-24 academic year, one of the most important things it had to do was build a regional identity and brand through competition against other schools in upstate New York. For that first season, Binghamton was the only school in the region to schedule a men’s basketball matchup with the Dolphins.
“We have a lot of Division I schools close to us,” Le Moyne head coach Nate Champion said on Saturday. “This has been kind of deemed as the rivalry, as a marquee game, that’s what they’re trying to do.”
After Binghamton won the first two games in the series, the Dolphins went down to Vestal and played what may have been their most complete game of the season. Le Moyne led wire-to-wire, winning 78-63, and bringing that trophy back up the highway represented by a red sheen on the clear glass map.
“They were calling this a rivalry,” Champion said. “But we hadn’t won anything. To get a win here and get on the board in that rivalry is something that can help going forward.”
A year ago, the Dolphins welcomed their biggest home crowd for a Division-I game to date, complete with a packed student section and a theme t-shirt giveaway commemorating the rivalry for their matchup against the Bearcats. The crowd watched as Chris Walker made six threes and Binghamton lifted the trophy on Le Moyne’s home floor.
That game dropped the ’Phins to 3-8. The team finished 9-23.
None of the eight players who stepped on the floor for Le Moyne in that game played in Saturday’s matchup. Only one – Nate Fouts, who is out for the season – is even still on the roster. But this Dolphins’ group wasted no time.
Six straight stops, 10 straight points to open the game. Levell Sanders needed timeout. The lead expanded all the way out to 19-4 after three more Le Moyne triples.
“It was a great start,” Champion said. “Taking advantage of the opportunities that they gave us, which we talked about in the scouting reports and preparation. We knew some areas that we thought we could exploit, and I thought we did a good job of that earlier.”
Trent Mosquera could only watch from the sideline in last season’s game, as he’d been injured a few games earlier, and would miss the rest of the campaign. He catalyzed his team’s early start with the trey to open the game, another one after the Binghamton timeout, and a big one later in the first half after the Bearcats cut the lead down to six.
One game after setting his career-high with 26 points, Mosquera scored 21 to lead the Dolphins to the win. It was his fourth 20-point game of the season, and he’s leading Le Moyne with 15.1 points per game.
“I’m just proud of him,” Champion said. “He has really bought into what we’ve been telling him. Buying into the game plans and just being a team player. I think you see the best of Trent Mosquera coming out and the more that he continues to grow as a player through this bigger role, the more confident he’s going to get.”
Le Moyne led by 12 at halftime after a monster dunk by Tennessee Rainwater, and the Bearcats never came closer than six in the second half as the Dolphins began to wear Binghamton down.
The loss dropped injury-ravaged BU to 3-7, and 1-7 against Division-I opponents. Its 356th ranking on KenPom at the moment is the lowest at any point of Sanders’ five-year tenure at the helm. He doesn’t want to make excuses.
“Even being down five guys, we still have to be able to find a way,” Sanders said. “Being down five guys doesn’t mean you’re going to miss layups. It doesn’t mean that you’re gonna let guys drive by you. That has nothing to do with who’s missing.”
Now 5-5 and winners of four of the last six, Le Moyne has a clear offensive identity. The Dolphins’ offense is the highest-ranked offense in the NEC per KenPom at the moment by a wide margin.
As Champion hoisted the trophy surrounded by his players, he had one thing on his mind.
“Hopefully it’s not the last championship trophy that we’re able to hoist,” he said.
