The Binghamton University women’s basketball team is setting new trends of late, but not the kind it wants to be setting.
When the Bearcats lost to the University of Vermont on Saturday, it was the first time they had dropped a home game all season long. Now, Binghamton has lost its second straight at home in yet another crucial conference matchup, this time to the University of Hartford, 55-37.
Following their first home loss of the season, the Bearcats (16-10, 9-4 America East) looked to get back to their winning ways at the Events Center against a red-hot Hartford team (12-14, 9-4 AE) that had won its last five games. The Hawks’ most recent win came against Boston University, which at the time stood in first place in the America East.
In recent years, the Hawks have dominated the Bearcats. But when the teams faced off earlier this year, Binghamton came out victorious for the first time since 2005 and the first time in Hartford since 2003.
But the Hawks came into Binghamton looking for revenge.
Though the Bearcats jumped out to a quick 5-0 advantage, Hartford fought back and took a healthy 20-12 lead with five minutes to go in the first half. A Binghamton surge late in the first half pulled BU to within one point, as sophomore Kara Elofson was fouled on a made layup.
Hartford countered with a 3-pointer before the buzzer sounded to head into halftime ahead 25-21.
The Bearcats caused two Hartford turnovers in the opening minutes of the second half but were unable to take advantage as the Hawks stretched their four-point halftime lead to 17 with 8:39 remaining.
The score remained at a standstill for over four minutes, until a pair of converted free throws for Binghamton, countered by yet another made 3-pointer for Hartford, put the score at 51-33 Hartford.
Down the stretch, BU had a tough time hitting its shots while everything that left Hartford’s hands seemed to go in.
“That just affected our team as a whole,” Elofson said. “We kind of just went five separate ways instead of staying together as a team.”
In the second half, the Bearcats shot just 19 percent from the field while the Hawks converted 56.5 percent of their shots.
“We just struggled offensively,” said junior guard Andrea Holmes. “We came in and had a couple of good looks in the beginning but as the game progressed we weren’t able to knock down shots.”
Holmes hit the team’s lone 3-pointer, which came on the first possession of the game. Binghamton finished 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.
“It was just one of those nights,” Holmes said.
“Frustrating,” Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl added. “In the first half I thought we did a great job on defense, had a lot of good looks on offense and unfortunately just a lot of those shots wouldn’t fall for us.”
Heading into the second half of the season, Scholl firmly believed that games would begin to get tougher as a result of her team being more and more well-scouted.
But asked whether Thursday’s result stemmed from good scouting or her team perhaps simply playing poorly, Scholl attributed the outcome to “a little bit of both.”
Regardless of the cause, the Bearcats have not looked like the contenders they appeared to be just one week ago.
The two recent losses drop the Bearcats into a tie for third place in the conference with the Hartford team that beat them last night.
But after starting the season 9-0 at home, Binghamton has dropped both of those games at the Events Center, a place at which it had been dominant for much of the season.
Despite the recent struggles, the Bearcats insist they are not worried about the future.
“Not at all,” Elofson said. “[The recent struggles at home are] a good way to refocus us.”
Binghamton is set to travel to the University at Albany to take on the Great Danes at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Bearcats, who were previously competing for the No. 1 seed, will still look to solidify a top-tier seed in the upcoming AE tournament. However, what were realistic hopes for a top seed in the tournament are slowly turning into nightmares of something worse for the Bearcats. With Albany’s victory over Stony Brook last night, Sunday’s game will have a significant impact on where the Bearcats could end up in the final standings.