For the first 15 minutes of regulation, 1-10 Binghamton hung with a one-loss Syracuse team that has a chance of finding itself nationally ranked this season. But the Bearcats went cold after trimming Syracuse’s lead to 20-17 with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, and the Orange (10-1) took off on a 15-0 run that lasted until nearly four minutes into the second half. Binghamton wouldn’t recover as the Orange cruised to a 68-45 win Saturday afternoon at the Carrier Dome.
“The score doesn’t say it, but overall I was very happy with how our players came out,” Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl said. “Our game plan going in was to try to take away [senior center Kayla Alexander] as much as possible and I thought we did a good job with that.”
The Bearcats held Alexander, who had been averaging 21 points per game, to just four points in the first half and 12 points all together. But the focus on the senior opened up shots from behind the arc for the Orange, who connected on 10 three-pointers.
“This was a game where we said from the beginning if this team was gonna beat us that they’d have to beat us from the three-point line,” Scholl said. “And, you know, they put up 28 threes to get 10 of them, so overall I thought our team, execution-wise, did what we asked of them.”
The Orange’s 68 total points were their second-lowest total of the year. They shot 32 percent from the field compared to BU’s 29 percent for the game.
Sophomore forward Sherae Swinson led Binghamton with 10 points, while freshman forward Morgan Murphy contributed seven points and a career-best and game-high 10 rebounds. Junior guard Jasbriell Swain tied Murphy with 10 boards and added five points, four assists and three steals.
The teams traded three-pointers to open the game, but the Orange quickly added another three and a layup to pull ahead 8-3. With 8:07 on the clock, Syracuse pushed its lead to 20-12, but a layup from senior forward Kara Elofson and an NBA-range three from junior guard Stephanie Jensen brought the Bearcats to within three. From there though, Syracuse would embark on its 15-0 run, lasting for around eight minutes and spanning the halftime break. When the Bearcats finally broke the drought with a jumper from Swinson at the 16:27 mark, they found themselves trailing 35-19, unable to surmount the deficit.
Binghamton committed 19 turnovers, but Scholl said Syracuse’s nearly-constant full-court press did not account for the majority of them.
“Syracuse basically pressed us the whole game, and those 19 turnovers, there was only maybe a handful of those that came from their pressure in the full court so I was very pleased with that,” she said. “Syracuse is a good team. I mean they’re bigger than we are and a little more athletic than we are and we knew it was gonna be a tough opponent coming in.”
The Bearcats have just two games remaining on their non-conference schedule: a tournament at Lehigh, before they are set to open up America East play on Jan. 2 against Hartford.
“Even though our record doesn’t show it, this team, in my opinion, isn’t a 1-10 team with how we’re starting to come along right now,” Scholl said. “We’ve played some tough competition.”
Binghamton is scheduled to compete in the Christmas City Classic on Dec. 29 and 30 at Lehigh’s Stabler Arena. BU is set to face the Mountain Hawks at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 29 before taking on Fairleigh Dickinson University at 2 p.m. the following day.