The wild scrum in the middle of the conference table continues for the Binghamton women’s basketball team.

After a disappointing loss at Maine, the Bearcats (9-15, 5-6 AE) sorely needed a win against UMBC on Valentine’s Day to avoid potential disaster and a fall into the America East cellar. BU managed to survive a historic snowstorm and a bunch of tough-minded Retrievers, putting them two games in front of New Hampshire and the play-in game scenario.

Now their sights are set on taking third place and reaching the break-even mark in conference play, but they’ll have to go through Vermont’s Patrick Gym and the feisty Catamounts (16-8, 6-5 AE) tomorrow at 2 p.m. to claim that position. The Vermont showdown kicks off a very tough run-in for the Bearcats, who also welcome the league’s two top teams, Hartford and Stony Brook, into the Events Center during the next eight days. Tomorrow, BU will look to build a winning streak for the first time this season in conference play to break this logjam, which includes all the aforementioned teams plus a suddenly rejuvenated Boston University squad.

‘It’s kind of been that situation all year long,’ said head coach Rich Conover. ‘If we could string a couple of wins together we could jump into third place in the standings pretty quickly.’

It is not often that a team gets second chances in the rough and tumble America East women’s basketball conference, but Conover and company have an opportunity to prevent that nasty feeling of deja vu. The Bearcats blew an early nine-point lead at Maine in their last opportunity to claim third place, and in doing so recorded their worst performance since the conference opener against last-place Albany. The Catamounts will be no easy customers at Patrick Gymnasium, where they handed Hartford its only conference loss and virtually wrapped up another win against Stony Brook before America East Player of the Year-elect Mykeema Ford broke their hearts.

‘It was the same at Maine last weekend, and we came up just short,’ Conover said. ‘So we’re looking for a more consistent effort against Vermont.’

The Catamounts thrive on breaking an opponent’s offensive consistency with a smothering full-court press. They easily lead the conference in steals (11.17 per game) and turnovers forced (21.7 per game). By rotating up to 12 capable players, Vermont head coach Sharon Dawley is able to keep a fresh team on the court at virtually all times.

In their first meeting, Binghamton, led by senior captain Shea Kenny, successfully broke the persistent Catamount pressure. Although Kenny only scored six points in the 64-55 Bearcat win, the statistics fail to tell the whole story. Each time Vermont clamped the press on, Shea broke it and forced the young Catamounts into a half-court battle in the trenches. From there, BU’s more physical front court wore the four-guard Vermont squad out, as Laura Franceski, Brianna Thompson and Laine Kurpniece controlled the paint, combining for 33 points and 17 rebounds.

The slower pace also forced Vermont’s great freshman, Courtnay Pilypaitis, out of her game. The front-runner for America East Rookie of the Year scored 13 points, but almost all her shots were highly contested by a host of Bearcats that included Sario, Thompson, Franceski and rarely-used freshman Darryll Peterson.

After the game, Dawley conceded that ‘physically and mentally, it wore me out.’

Binghamton stat leaders: Laura Sario, 13.4 ppg (7th, America East); Laine Kurpniece, 49.6 shooting percentage (3rd, America East); Rebecka Lindgren, 51.9 3-point shooting percentage (1st, America East).

Vermont stat leaders: Courtnay Pilypaitis, 13.6 ppg (6th, America East); Pilypaitis, 4.17 assists per game (1st, America East); Brittney Cross, 1.53 A/TO ratio (1st, America East).