Following a tough home-court loss to Syracuse University last weekend, the Binghamton University women’s basketball team rebounded on Wednesday with a 61-48 victory over Cornell University, improving its record to 4-2 on the year.
Binghamton senior forward Viive Rebane and sophomore guard Jasbriell Swain each tallied a game-high 17 points to lead the Binghamton attack. Rebane also posted a game-best and season-high 13 rebounds on the night, garnering her third consecutive double-double. Rebane now ranks fourth all time in career rebounds for BU with 713.
Senior guard Andrea Holmes added 10 points and three assists, while Swain and senior forward Sinead O’Reilly collected seven and eight rebounds, respectively. O’Reilly’s eight rebounds marked a career-high for her.
With the win, the Bearcats have now won two of three on the road against non-conference opponents.
BU head coach Nicole Scholl said she was happy with the team’s positive turnaround.
“I thought it was an important win for us,” she said. “Especially with the caliber of talent that we’ve been playing to not go into a game like Cornell who, record-wise, hadn’t been doing great — but coming in and not playing to a different level where we had been at and doing some things well. We didn’t start off the game very well, but at that middle session of the first half I thought we picked things up and sustained our momentum from there.”
In the first half, Rebane and Holmes propelled a 15-0 BU run that gave the Bearcats a 25-10 lead with 6:02 remaining on the clock. The Big Red kept within striking distance, though, cutting the deficit to 10 entering halftime.
Cornell (2-5) carried its momentum into the second half and trailed by only three, 34-31, with 10:45 left in the game. But the Bearcats responded to the Big Red’s resurgence with a 13-3 run that was capped by two consecutive 3-pointers from Holmes. BU would maintain a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.
Junior forward Clare Fitzpatrick led the Cornell offense with 14 points, while freshman guard Allyson DiMagno pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds.
The Bearcats will look to build on their win over Cornell when they return home to take on St. Bonaventure University (5-1) at the Events Center tomorrow.
In last season’s matchup, St. Bonaventure emerged victorious in a close affair due much in part to the scoring prowess of guard Jessica Jenkins, who posted a game-high 22 points. Now a senior, Jenkins has recorded double-digit points in five of the Bonnies’ six games this season, leading the team with a season-high 23 points against West Virginia University on Nov. 18.
Scholl said she believes her team will be successful by sticking to the fundamentals.
“We are very similar teams in our style of defense,” she said. “I think keeping Jenkins under control and not letting her get some easy looks from the outside and not allowing [Megan Van] Tatenhove to have easy looks inside will be crucial. For us, it’s about offensive execution. If we can get out and run in transition, we’re going to do that. Otherwise we need to be good in the half court and understand where we can put players that are going to be the most successful.”
Tomorrow’s game against St. Bonaventure is set to tip off at 2 p.m. at the Events Center.