The Binghamton University women’s basketball team struggled with rebounding and with getting its leading scorer the ball, leading to a 74-60 loss on the road at the hands of Stony Brook (7-16, 5-6 America East) on Saturday, dropping its third consecutive road game.
Senior guard and leading scorer Erica Carter, who is averaging just under 14 points per game, was held to just 8 points in the loss for the Bearcats (8-15, 4-6 AE). With Carter leading the way, the team had been averaging a conference-best 7.5 3-pointers per game, but shot just 4-of-13 at Stony Brook.
“In the last couple games, teams have been doing a good job of shadowing her and not letting her loose so she hasn’t gotten the passes,” said Bearcats head coach Nicole Scholl. “It’s frustrating, but we know it’s something we’ll have to work with in the upcoming games.”
To pick up the slack on scoring, sophomore guard Andrea Holmes led the Bearcats with 15 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore forward Viive Rebane chipped in 12 points and nine rebounds.
But the Bearcats were outrebounded for the second straight game, this time by a 47-33 margin, and turned the ball over 22 times in the match.
“Their team was aggressive from the start,” Scholl said. “I thought their pressure hurt us today. It forced 22 turnovers; one of our keys before the game was taking care of the basketball, and I don’t think we did that very well. We [also] got out-rebounded … so that was definitely a big problem for us.”
The Seawolves avenged a 74-58 loss to the Bearcats earlier this year as junior forward Kirsten Jeter dropped 17 points after accumulating just five in the previous meeting. The Bearcats never led in the match; they got within 26-23 in the first half, but Stony Brook had a 14-3 run early in the second half to bury the Bearcats into a 21-point hole. Binghamton pulled within 12 points with just under four minutes left, but that was as close as it got the rest of the way.
Scholl also observed other factors that changed the game and allowed Stony Brook to take over.
“Our defense ends up creating our offense a lot of the time, for us to get out in transition, and we didn’t do that right away from the start; I thought Stony Brook jumped on us right away, and we really didn’t respond. We tried to make it a half-court game, and that’s really not where we want to be; we want to get out in transition, and when we did that, I thought we made a decent run. We got within eleven, and [after] a couple mistakes, a couple turnovers, let Stony Brook regain their lead again.”
For the Bearcats, junior guard Jackie Ward scored 11 points, and senior guard Daryll Peterson gave Binghamton a strong contribution off the bench with 14 points, eight rebounds and two steals.
“I thought Daryll did a great job playing today, both defensively, rebounding-wise, and in point production for us,” Scholl said. “I thought she went in and did what she normally does: have a lot of confidence.”
Despite Peterson’s poise, when asked what the Bearcats can do to improve from here, Scholl said the team needed to play with more confidence in the crucial upcoming conference games.
“We need to become a little more focused in practice,” she said. “That’s really where it starts, and [we need to] work on the little things that are gonna help make us better: rebounding, boxing out, taking care of the basketball when we’re getting pressured, being patient on the offensive end, finding the open looks.”
The loss dropped the Bearcats from fourth to sixth in the conference, overtaken by Stony Brook and UMBC, who Binghamton will face in its next game. The Bearcats took down the Retrievers in its most recent road win by an 80-63 score. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Events Center.