The premier player in the America East danced her way past the Binghamton women’s basketball team last night, and it was not a pretty sight for the home fans.

Stony Brook senior Mykeema Ford added to her Player of the Year credentials with a 28-point, four-assist effort as the visiting Seawolves (15-10, 11-2 AE) upended the Bearcats (10-16, 6-7 AE), 71-62 at the Events Center Wednesday night. Drawing numerous fouls and double-teams, Ford wreaked havoc on a Binghamton defense that came into the game second in the conference in scoring average.

‘We never, since I’ve been here, we’ve never won on this court against Binghamton,’ Ford said. ‘For me, personally, this was my last time playing against Binghamton, and we came out and played hard, stuck together, and we pulled out the win at the end.’

Stony Brook head coach Maura McHugh contended that her star point guard should receive looks from WNBA teams after the season.

‘I coached in the WNBA [for the Sacramento Monarchs] and I’m telling you, she’s as good as the guards that I’ve coached,’ McHugh said. ‘I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she gets into that league.’

In an unusual turn of events for the Bearcats, the opponent got a big head start. Stony Brook scored the first 10 points before BU put anything on the scoreboard, which changed when Rebecka Lindgren hit a jumper nearly five minutes into the game.

‘I just think that their intensity was stronger than ours was,’ said BU forward Brianna Thompson, who had a team-high 14 points. ‘In the first half, I think we finally regrouped and were like, ‘What the heck, we’re better than this,’ and I think that just got us going.’

After SBU’s initial spurt, the Bearcats outscored their Long Island rivals 28-19 for the remainder of the first half to go into the locker room down by just one point, 29-28. Binghamton felt that its more consistent play in the last 17 minutes of the first half would carry over into the second half and produce a win.

‘I thought after digging that 10-0 hole, we showed a lot of resiliency to come back,’ said head coach Rich Conover. ‘I felt like we dug ourselves out of that hole, and with a little more intensity, a little more focus, that the game would have been ours in the second half. But we just weren’t able to get over that hump.’

The Seawolves swarmed the Bearcats with significant half-court pressure for long stretches. Although BU did not find it difficult to cross the half-court stripe, whenever it did, two SBU defenders consistently harassed point guards Rebecka Lindgren and Shea Kenny. Although the Bearcats only committed 14 turnovers, the constant pressure defense forced BU out of its comfort zone.

‘We wanted to pressure them a little bit,’ McHugh said. ‘They’re a big team and they’re a physical team, so we tried to extend the game and extend our defense a little bit to try and give us a little more of an advantage.’

Conover reluctantly agreed with her regarding Stony Brook’s defensive intensity.

‘It disrupted us,’ Conover said when talking about SBU’s half-court trap. ‘I didn’t feel like we met their aggression with enough intensity. When we were tentative, the pressure really hurt us.’

The rebounding battle also turned to SBU’s favor in the second half. The Seawolves out-rebounded the Bearcats 21-14 in the second half, including an 8-4 advantage on the offensive glass. The smaller, quicker Seawolves seemed to out-hustle BU to almost every ball.

‘They go to the glass hard,’ Conover said when referring to Stony Brook’s two post players, Dana Ferraro and Jessica Smith. ‘I thought we did give them too many second shots.’

Conover also singled out unheralded SBU guard Leah Getz for praise. Getz, who gets overshadowed by Ford and Smith, posted 10 points and eight rebounds.

‘She’s a very active player,’ Conover said. ‘She was on the offensive boards, she was driving to the hoop, she went to the free-throw line and she was a real presence for them on the defensive end.’

With the loss, the Bearcats slip into a tie for third with Maine and Vermont at 6-7. Boston University and UMBC are tied for sixth with 6-8 records.

‘I think we have to respond from this,’ Conover said. ‘I think the biggest enemy we have is us.’