Luckily for Lehigh, it’s only a two and half hour bus ride back to campus. Any longer and depression might set in.
The Binghamton University women’s basketball team thoroughly embarrassed Lehigh last night 72-48 at the Events Center. The win, Binghamton’s fourth in its last five games, was one point shy of the Bearcats’ largest margin of victory since moving to Division I.
“I think what helped us win was defensive intensity,” said head coach Rich Conover. “It was our best defensive game of the year by far. We really came out with a lot of energy.”
The Bearcats’ stingy defense held Lehigh — a team picked to finish second in the Patriot League — to a mere 22 percent shooting. BU continued its hot shooting ways, hitting 55 percent of its shots. The Bearcats were led by senior forward Rachel Laws who scored a game-high 14 points, and junior forward Juta Jahilo, who registered a career-high nine points.
“I felt really comfortable today,” Jahilo said. “I’m happy that today was my day.”
The Bearcats (4-3) controlled the game from the outset. They went ahead 5-4 on a Jen Haubrich three-pointer early in the first half, and never trailed again. Despite getting into early foul trouble, the Bearcats led 33-19 at halftime. Even though Lehigh (2-6) attempted 13 more free throws than BU, the Mountain Hawks couldn’t generate enough offense to get back into the game.
BU got production from its entire team, as every player who was on the court for more than three minutes registered a field goal. Sophomore forward Brianna Thompson returned after a brief hiatus, and delivered eight points, while senior guard Jen Blues, and sophomore center Laine Kurpniece each scored seven.
“I think all our players have worked very hard in practice,” Conover said. “We stressed for them to play hard and have confidence in their abilities and their time will come. I think everyone’s comfortable with a team concept while last year it was Rachel all the time. This year, on any given night, a lot of players can step up.”
BU kept their intensity up in the second half, and Lehigh still couldn’t break down the wall that was the Bearcats’ D. The win marked the Bearcats’ sixth straight home victory dating back to last season and really exemplified the balanced attack that BU has employed.
“If we’re tired one day or not playing well, it’s great to know that someone can come off the bench and help us,” Blues said. “Today we had Juta come off the bench and play awesome. It’s good to know we can get that.”
BU heads up I-81 next Saturday to take on Big East foe Syracuse. Syracuse is one of the tougher challenges the Bearcats will face this year, but seem prepared.
“I think that we’re really coming together as a team,” Blues said. “It’s basically the same team as last year so we’ve had like a year and half to come together. We mesh better now, we really know each other’s strengths and we play off that.”