The Binghamton University women’s basketball team went into Saturday’s home game against the Vermont Catamounts with history on its mind. With a perfect 10-0 home record on the season, the Bearcats needed only one win to set a program record for most consecutive home wins. But they fell just short, dropping a 59-58 decision to the Catamounts.
In front of a program-best 3,263 fans, the Bearcats (16-9, 9-3 America East) got off to a nightmarish start. Highlighted by two 3-pointers by Lauren Wheeler, who finished with a game- and career-high 22 points, Vermont (4-21, 4-8 AE) started the game on a 10-0 run. Junior forward Viive Rebane finally hit Binghamton’s first basket of the game at the 14:51 mark. Vermont’s Tonya Young, who finished with 16 points, also gave Binghamton trouble in the first half and after seven minutes of play, it was 16-2 Vermont. The crowd, which was also the largest for a women’s home game among all America East teams this season, was left in shock.
“Vermont came out strong and hit a couple of threes,” Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl said. “Their 3-point percentage hasn’t been good of late so that was kind of the beginning piece of it.”
Although the Catamounts’ record wasn’t pretty to look at, the Bearcats knew that they’d have their hands full. The last time these two faced off on Jan. 23, it took overtime for Binghamton to thwart the pesky Catamounts, 55-51. Scholl knows that in order to win the close games, her team can’t afford to start off games the way it did on Saturday.
“We thought we were the better team and that we just needed to start playing like it,” Scholl said. “We didn’t start off well in the first half and that’s going to hurt you, especially at this point in the season. You’re very well scouted and you’ve got the bull’s-eye on your back.”
With plenty of game left to play, the Bearcats began to slowly chip away. Junior guard Orla O’Reilly, who finished with 11 points, hit a key 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer to pull the Bearcats within single digits, 29-20.
“The threes came from our defense,” O’Reilly said. “I think once we picked it up on defense and stopped them from scoring a little, we got some momentum on offense and I got some open looks and knocked them down.”
O’Reilly’s 3-pointer sent the Bearcats into the locker room with a much-needed momentum boost. So when the Bearcats took the floor in the second half, they looked like a different team.
“We knew that we weren’t playing well,” O’Reilly said. “We knew that we weren’t giving full efforts. So I think in the second half we came back and slowed down on offense a little bit and we tried to get into our posts. I think we just did a better job of executing.”
Rebane dominated in the second half, scoring 14 of her 18 points in the last 20 minutes. With 9:40 left in the game, her steal and layup gave the Bearcats their first lead of the game, 41-40.
“We’ve given teams the early lead and we can’t do that,” Rebane said. “We’re a good team and good teams don’t let other teams come in and run on them.”
With 4:18 left to play and the score tied at 50, Vermont hit back-to-back baskets to put them up by four. The Bearcats managed to stay within one possession until Vermont’s Kristine Lalonde made it a four-point game on a free throw with six seconds left to play. In the final play of the game, Binghamton senior guard Jackie Ward hit a half-court shot as time expired but couldn’t draw the foul. The Bearcats lost the game by a final score of 59-58.
This loss makes the upcoming conference games even more critical for Binghamton than before. The squad is set to host Hartford on Thursday, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.