In the wake of one of its biggest wins of year, the Binghamton University women’s basketball team received a terrible blow — junior guard Andrea Holmes suffered a torn ACL in her left knee in the Bearcats’ victory over Boston University last week, and the team will be without its star player for the rest of the season. On Saturday, Binghamton (18-11, 11-5 America East) traveled to Stony Brook University for its final regular season game of the year, and the Bearcats struggled mightily to fill the gaping void. Binghamton turned the ball over 21 times and shot just 29.2 percent from the field before dropping the game to the Seawolves, 54-37. The loss meant the Bearcats would be the third seed in the America East tournament.
“Honestly, I thought we would’ve performed a little bit better today,” said Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl. “I just felt like Stony Brook kind of took us out of our game to begin with and then we never fully recovered from it. And, you know, Andrea’s not gonna be back and it’s gonna be a challenge for this team to move forward from that, which I fully believe they’re capable of doing.”
When Binghamton and Stony Brook met earlier in the season, the Bearcats toppled the Seawolves (6-22, 3-12 AE) at the Events Center 63-43 in an impressive display of offense that included double-digit scoring from four different Bearcats. This time around, however, the offense floundered and the Bearcats managed only 37 total points. The Bearcats have scored fewer in just a single game this year — a non-conference loss against American University on Dec. 30.
Binghamton opened the game with a layup from junior forward Viive Rebane and would pick up another point when freshman guard Jasbriell Swain hit a free-throw minutes later to give BU a 3-2 lead. But the Seawolves soon responded with a jumper to regain the lead, and the Bearcats saw what would be their last lead of the game vanish with just over four minutes having elapsed on the clock.
The score remained tight in the first half, as the Bearcats managed to keep from falling too far behind. The Seawolves took their largest lead of the half when senior guard Jackie Ward fouled Stony Brook sophomore Gerda Gatling on a layup with under a minute left to play. The shot was good and Gatling hit her free throw to give the Seawolves a 28-19 advantage. In the Bearcats’ next possession, however, Ward answered with a layup of her own to put the Bearcats back within seven going into halftime.
Clearly feeling the absence of Holmes, BU committed 13 of its 21 turnovers in the first half, and Stony Brook took advantage, accumulating 22 of its 54 total points off Binghamton turnovers. Rebane led the team in turnovers with eight, while junior guard Orla O’Reilly committed six of her own. The Bearcats’ 21 turnovers in the game matched a season-worst since entering conference play.
In the second half, the Bearcats’ struggles worsened. Stony Brook went on a seven-point run that quickly doubled the Seawolves’ lead to 14 points to open the half. Sophomore center Juanita Cochran went on a tear and BU was able to do little to stop her. She would finish the contest with a game-high 22 points.
By the 10-minute mark, BU had managed to score just six points and the Seawolves had stretched their lead to 16. The Bearcats proved unable to bounce back from the deficit and Stony Brook took the game 54-37.
As a team, the Bearcats went just 5-of-25 from the field in the second half and fared even worse from beyond the arc throughout the contest, taking just 12 shots from 3-point territory the entire game.
Ward was the lone player able to connect from 3-point range as she went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc to lead the Bearcats with 16 points. Her 11 points in the second half accounted for nearly 70 percent of the 16 total points the Bearcats managed after halftime.
“I thought [Ward] played hard and solid the whole game,” Scholl said. “She was in it from start to finish and I thought she was out there and really tried to lead the team … Unfortunately for her, we came out with the loss today.”
The contest marked the final regular-season game for Ward, the Bearcats’ lone senior.
Stony Brook outperformed the Bearcats in every major category, outshooting the Bearcats 34.4 percent to 29.2 percent from the field, pulling down nine more rebounds than Binghamton and dishing out 14 assists compared to the Bearcats’ three.
With the loss, the Bearcats were appointed the third seed going into the America East tournament and are set to face off against sixth-seeded University of New Hampshire in the first round of play. BU beat UNH both times they met in the regular season.
With the seeding, the Bearcats may have even received a slight break, as the loss to Stony Brook allowed the Bearcats to evade facing seventh-seeded Vermont in the first round. BU split regular-season play with the Catamounts and both games were extremely tight, with the Bearcats defeating Vermont in overtime on the road, and later losing by a point at home.
Scholl said that she feels confident going into the tournament, despite the loss of the team’s star player, and stressed the need for the team to possess confidence in themselves, as well.
“I feel good about our matchup against UNH,” Scholl said. “We’ve beaten them twice and even without Andrea I think it’s another team I’m confident we can get a win against … We have solid players out there playing for us and they just need to believe that.”
Binghamton is set to take on UNH in the America East quarterfinals at 2:35 p.m. Friday in Hartford.