She started as the precocious rookie that everyone was talking about, then evolved into a versatile spark plug in her sophomore year. But now, entering her junior season, Jasbriell Swain finds herself the face of the Binghamton University women’s basketball team.

The change in roles has been a long time coming for Swain. As a freshman, she catapulted onto the scene with her high-energy style of play, finishing third on the Bearcats with 8.6 points per game and 2.1 assists per game. She accumulated a team-high six double-doubles and was fifth in the conference with 7.9 rebounds per game en route to being honored as the America East Rookie of the Year.

The following year, she continued to mature and grow as a player. She averaged 6.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in 2011-12 and had a knack for timely hooping and rebounding. In the team’s America East semifinal matchup against University at Albany on March 4, she contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds.

This season, the torch has been passed to Swain. And while she is ready to step up and provide leadership for a young squad, she still doesn’t see herself, or any other player, for that matter, as the star of the team.

“I don’t feel like everything’s going to focus on me,” Swain said. “I feel like I still have the same role I’ve always had. My role is to get to the basket and find my kick-outs. My role has been to keep the defense on fire and to be a vocal leader. And I feel like that’s what I’ve always been and that’s what I’m going to continue to be, and whatever Coach asks me to do, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Swain is ready to have the offense run through her and serve as Binghamton’s go-to scorer, but she acknowledges there is a level of talent around her that she can rely upon.

“I’m not afraid for Coach to put the ball in my hand and tell me to go to work or get to the rim,” she said. “But at the same time, I know that if I can’t do it somebody else on my team can step up. Although we lost our three top scorers, I feel like we still have people that can come in and put up the same numbers [as the departing players].”

In her sophomore season, Swain learned from the veteran leadership and demeanor of then-seniors and leading scorers Andrea Holmes, Viive Rebane and Orla O’Reilly. What Holmes, Rebane and O’Reilly were to her, Swain said she plans on being for the younger players on this squad.

“I feel like if I learned anything from them, it was to never stop working hard,” she said. “They were gym rats. I looked at them and was wishing sometimes I could shoot the ball as well as they could, but I saw that I wasn’t putting in the same amount of work … So I feel like that’s one thing that I took from them, and I feel like I can pass that on to the younger players.”

Heeding the advice of her mentors, Swain headed to the gym often over the off-season. Her primary focus: shooting.

“I feel like that’s one of the biggest things that I do when I get in the gym,” she said. “I try to focus on my outside shooting and free throws. And I feel like once I get those two things down pact, for right now, for this year, then I’ll be a much better player. People will have to respect my outside game and that way I can get to the rim at will, but I feel like until then, they’re still not going to step off me. But I’ve been getting in the gym a lot and trying to perfect those things.”

While the Bearcats will have a lot of offense to make up with their top three scorers from last season all having graduated, Swain remains adamant about this year’s team’s commitment to defense. It’s been the focal point of her game ever since she started playing and she expects Binghamton to be aggressive when the opposition has the ball this season.

“I’ve been doing this since middle school. Defense has been the only thing that’s helped me get better,” Swain said. “My coaches that I played for in the past have always stressed defense, defense. That’s all I know is defense. And when my offense isn’t going as well, I know that I can rely on defense. If there’s anything that you can control, coaches have always told me that it’s defense. So I feel like when we get stops, as far as steals and defensive boards and even offensive boards, it’s just a momentum builder and it pushes everybody forward.”

With the majority of their starting lineup from last year gone and five freshmen on the roster, the Bearcats aren’t faced with many high expectations in 2012-13, and Swain said she just wants to see gradual improvement from her team. But she still has an America East championship in her sights.

“I just would like to see us get better game by game,” she said. “I would like to see us never roll over and never give up to any team no matter how big they are, no matter what conference they’re in. I just want to see us come together as a team and have fun. And just play hard for the whole 40 minutes. And obviously, what team doesn’t want a championship? So that’s my ultimate goal. But until then, for right now, I just want to see us get better game by game.”