The story for the Binghamton women’s basketball team all throughout this season has been one of change. A new head coach, a freshman class that has dominated the BU score sheets this season and a new attitude have all helped revive a BU team on the brink of collapse.
But what is to be said about those who stuck around?
Hit by transition and graduation, only six players from the current 11-woman roster suited up for Binghamton (4-25, 2-14 America East) last season. Meaning, if the Bearcats wanted to have any shot at consistency, the existing leaders had to step up to play a role that most of them had never seen — let alone played — before.
Senior forward Sherae Swinson is one of those players. And as one of the team’s two seniors, she has suited up for BU in its highest — and lowest — moments, starting in three of her four seasons as a Bearcat. Now, an anchor of an offense that has outscored last season’s squad by nearly 200 points on the season, the senior finds herself in a new role. With the Events Center hosting the AE women’s basketball tournament for the first time in its history, Swinson has a shot to end her conference career at home.
“I’m really excited to play in front of these fans again,” Swinson said. “I think they’ve been great over these past four years, and I’m just really excited for the tournament to be here.”
In her final season as a Bearcat, the six-foot senior has led BU in boards on both ends of the court, averaging 2.8 per game on offense and 5.3 per game on defense to put her in the top five for both categories in the AE. She also claims the title of the team’s third leading scorer with an average of 11.5 points per game — right behind the sensational freshman guard duo of Jasmine Sina and Imani Watkins, who average 14.7 and 13.4 points per game, respectively. For Swinson, who was the team’s only player to average above 10 points last season, the addition of Cimino’s fast-paced freshman class was a welcomed one.
“It was good for me to show them how to play and just be a good role model on and off the court for them,” Swinson said. “They’ve had to go through a lot of minutes and a lot of adversity as underclassmen — I didn’t have to go through that my freshman year. They really taught me a lot.”
In Swinson’s freshman season, 2011-12, BU went into the AE tournament with a 12-17 record before upsetting third-seeded Hartford in the semifinals. Led by then-coach Nicole Scholl, Swinson’s freshman campaign was propelled by then senior guard Andrea Holmes, who led the entire conference in scoring by averaging 15.1 points per game. Since then, Binghamton has only won 15 total games — getting knocked out in the first round of the AE playoffs for two straight years — and has not even claimed a top-three scorer since.
But, despite a dismal regular-season record, the Bearcats’ prospects took a turn for the better behind Swinson’s veteran leadership this season. And while the eighth-seeded Bearcats are far from a favorite against first-seeded Maine this Saturday, four career playoff appearances and two games against the Black Bears this season have given the senior an idea of how to attack.
“We’re going to have to play hard and play together,” Swinson said. “We did have some good runs against Maine, and I think we have to fix some little things … We’re going to work on that this week and we’re going to be okay.”
As the clock continues to wind down on the season, togetherness will be of greater importance to the Bearcats, as their new style will be tested with the conference all in attendance and everything up for grabs. And while the thought of that last game clock hitting zero for BU still strikes Swinson as surreal, there is no place that she would rather be for it.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Swinson said. “But I’m just really excited that it’s here at home in Binghamton.”