The Binghamton women’s basketball team has a chance to take sole possession of fourth place in the America East this weekend when it takes on the Maine Black Bears, the Bearcats’ equivalents in the standings.

A victory at noon tomorrow in Orono, Maine, would also be the start of BU’s first road-winning streak this season, coming off a 70-60 victory over Albany this past Saturday.

The Bearcats took the last matchup between these two teams (Jan. 10 at the Events Center) by a final of 54-49. This time, with the Bearcats and Black Bears tied and the season exactly a month further along since they last met, more rides on the outcome.

‘It’s a huge game standings wise,’ said head coach Rich Conover. ‘We were fortunate enough to get our first road win at Albany, and now we have to keep that momentum going.’

A win would not only put the Bearcats alone in fourth place, but also give them a potential shot at surpassing No. 3 Vermont, who is just one game ahead of BU and Maine.

‘Right now we’re just taking it one game at a time, but the three seed is still within reach,’ Conover said.

Maine, like Binghamton, is coming off a win over Albany. The Black Bears downed the Great Danes 71-63 in Orono Tuesday night.

Maine is led by its senior duo of forward Bracey Barker and guard Ashley Underwood, who rank third and sixth in the league in scoring, respectively. For the Bearcats, much of the scoring burden will again be on junior guard Laura Sario, who currently ranks seventh in the AE with 13.1 points per game and who racked up 18 last time against Maine.

It will also take a strong defensive effort from Binghamton to keep the conference’s fourth-ranked scoring offense in check. Standing in the way of the Black Bears’ top scorers will be Laura Franceski, who is third in the conference, averaging 1.5 blocks per game.

‘It’s going to take defensive intensity for the whole game, right from the opening tip,’ Conover said.

The Jan. 10 game marked the return of Shea Kenny and Sario to the Bearcats’ lineup, but Maine will see a decidedly different BU team now that the whole team has had time to play together and seems to be clicking as a unit as of late.

‘We’ve had a full complement of players back,’ Conover said. ‘Everyone has gotten healthy and learned to play together as a unit.’

With games looming against Hartford and Stony Brook, a win over Maine will be huge if the Bearcats hope to climb to the top of the standings and make some noise going into the conference tournament.