After beating NJIT 68-48 last weekend, the Binghamton women’s basketball team continued America East (AE) conference play at home against UMass Lowell on Thursday night, winning 79-48. The Bearcats captured the lead early into the first half, and their defense never gave the River Hawks a chance to catch up. The second half saw much of the same with Binghamton continuing to advance its lead, winning by a 31-point margin.

“They worked really, really hard on the defensive end, so we had a lot of opportunities on the offensive end,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord.

Binghamton (12-15, 7-7 AE) got on the board first, scoring first five points of the game off a jump shot from graduate student guard Denai Bowman and a three-pointer from redshirt sophomore guard Ella Wanzer. The River Hawks (4-21, 4-9 AE) responded with two points of their own, but those would be the only two points that BU would surrender up until the three-minute mark of the first quarter. The Bearcats then went on a 14-point uninterrupted run before UMass Lowell could score. Despite a few baskets from the River Hawks, BU ultimately remained in control, ending the quarter up 22-10.

“Offensively, we weren’t really sharing, like we were trying to do too much one-on-one, and we needed to keep moving the ball and sharing the basketball to get not good shots, but great shots,” Shapiro Ord said.

The Bearcats continued much of what they were able to do in the first period, maintaining their momentum with a 6-0 run to go up 28-10. UMass Lowell then made a layup to stop the bleeding. Both teams exchanged points for the majority of the quarter, with the River Hawks cutting into the BU lead, making it 35-25 with just over a minute remaining. A free throw from redshirt sophomore guard Jadyn Weltz put BU up 36-25 going into the second half.

“When [Wanzer and Bowman] were open, it was some tough defense on UMass Lowell’s part, but they took care of business and took their shots that they [knew] that they could score,” Shapiro Ord said.

The River Hawks came out early in the third quarter, getting on the board first, but BU quickly responded right after, with Bowman completing a three-point play to give BU a 39-27 lead. Soon after, a three-pointer from Wanzer put the Bearcats up by 15 points. Binghamton shut down any sign of a comeback from UMass Lowell, outscoring the visitors 25-11 in the period and leading 61-36 going into the fourth quarter.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Bearcats stayed in control, maintaining a significant double-digit lead with baskets from sophomore guard/forward Camryn Fauria, Bowman and Weltz to make it 69-43. BU continued to score at will, extending its lead over the River Hawks. When it was all said and done, the Bearcats came out with a 79-48 win — its largest margin of victory in AE play.

“They just realized ‘Hey, we got to get stops,’” Shapiro Ord said. “When we get stops, we’ll be able to have more opportunities on the offensive end, and who doesn’t want to play offense and who doesn’t want to score points? So I think that was the big part of it.”

Leading the way for Binghamton on offense was Bowman with 21 points and Wanzer right behind her with 20. BU shot 46 percent from the field and held UMass Lowell to just 35.3 percent shooting in the matchup. With two games to go in AE play, the Bearcats will look to close out the season strong for the chance to host a home playoff game.

“We’re going to take one game at a time,” Shapiro Ord said. “There’s still two very good teams, and we’re on the road. We’re going to have to be 10 points better. We’ve got to come up with more stops, [and] we got to come up with more rebounds.”

With two AE conference games remaining, Binghamton will go back on the road to take on Maine on Thursday, Feb. 29. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine.