After falling to Yale on Sunday, the Binghamton women’s basketball team faced another Ivy League opponent in UPenn — the defending conference champions — on Wednesday night. This time, however, the Bearcats (1-2) tore through their Ivy opponent to record their first victory of the season, 61-48.
“I thought we did a great job, defensively,” said BU head coach Linda Cimino. “Our guards, our pressure; we forced a lot of turnovers and that helped provide some offense for us in transition.”
The Bearcats controlled the game early on, ending the first quarter with a 15-8 lead. With 7:21 remaining in the half, the Quakers (0-2) cut BU’s lead to six. BU responded quickly, going on an 11-0 run to push their advantage to 17 and head into the locker room with a comfortable 34-22 lead.
The Bearcats stretched their lead to 19 less than five minutes into the third before the Quakers outscored them in final quarter, 14-10.
The Bearcats’ duo of guards — junior Imani Watkins and redshirt sophomore Jasmine Sina — proved too much for any defensive look UPenn attempted.
“Imani [Watkins] and Jasmine [Sina] shot the lights out of the ball,” Cimino said.
Watkins matched her season high with 26 points, hitting five 3-pointers in the process. Sina also impressed from beyond the arc, as 12 of her 17 points came off 3-pointers.
“We feed off each other; we feed off each other’s energy,” Sina said. ” I love playing with Imani [Watkins]. She’s a great player, we really get each other involved in the game.”
After scoring just one point in BU’s opener against Bucknell, Sina has returned to the form of her freshman season, when she averaged 14.8 points per game and was seventh in the nation in 3-pointers.
“I definitely felt a little rusty at first; it’s been very hard coming back, but now I feel like I’m getting back into the groove, so I’m really excited to get back into it again,” she said.
With junior center Alyssa James sidelined due to a foot injury, the Bearcats needed a team effort on the interior. They got just that, finishing with 40 rebounds and 24 points in the paint.
“We struggle playing without [James] defensively, so I think that everyone picked it up on the defensive end,” Watkins said. “It was just so intense, we were talking, we were rotating, we were moving, we boxed out really well, we rebounded really well, and I think we won this one for her.”
Freshman guard Kai Moon finished a team high 10 rebounds, which is particularly notable since, at 5-foot-6, she stands as one of the shortest players on the court.
“[Moon] was great,” Cimino said. “She didn’t score like she can score, but she did the little things. She drove and kicked; she got in the lane and created opportunities for her teammates.”
Sophomore guard Rebecca Carmody did it all off the bench, finishing with six rebounds, four points and three steals. One key contributor that didn’t show up in the box score was senior forward Kristin Ross, who made a couple of clutch plays and baskets to secure BU’s win.
“Ross did a great job; she came in and stepped up for us in [James]’ absence and she got a couple of rebounds and a couple of key baskets and free throws for us,” Cimino said.
BU is scheduled to play Providence on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. from Alumni Hall in Providence, Rhode Island.