After opening up the season with three hard-fought contests, the Binghamton women’s basketball team continued its 2015-16 campaign on Saturday afternoon by defeating Division III Cedar Crest, 74-18. The Bearcats (2-2) opened up the scoring early, opening up a 23-0 lead before the Falcons (0-5) got on the board. BU finished the game with 52 points in the paint, 20 assists and each of the 10 players that saw time had at least one basket.

“I thought today was a great team effort,” Binghamton head coach Linda Cimino said. “Everyone contributed, shared the ball well. I’m really proud of our effort.”

Sophomore forward Alyssa James owned the paint, shooting 10-for-15 to lead the way with a career-high 21 points. James also added a team-high 10 rebounds to lock up her second career double-double. Cimino was quick to make a few bold predictions regarding James as the season goes on.

“I think Alyssa will have a double-double every game,” Cimino said. “I know she was short at Bucknell, but I would expect that she averages a double-double. She rebounds the ball well, she’s a big target to pass the ball to and I’d anticipate that she’d also be the top defender in the conference come conference play.”

Cimino’s confidence in James has been echoed throughout the locker room.

“She’s unbelievable,” senior guard Kim Albrecht said. “Everyday she surprises us with something new and she gets better and better everyday and she’s such a great leader.”

Albrecht, meanwhile, finished the game with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. But it was her play which was’t described in the box score that defined her Saturday afternoon.

“Kim’s confidence grows with the game so if she knocks down her first couple of shots, and she’s on a roll, then we know we can look for her to score,” Cimino said. “She put her personal stats aside today and could’ve scored 30 points. She wanted to execute the offense, make the extra pass, run our sets, and get the other girls active so I give Kim a lot of credit.”

Shot selection has become a major theme in the Bearcats’ season. On Saturday, the Bearcats shot 56.7 percent from the field, more than double that of their 27 percent shooting percentage in the team’s previous game against Bucknell.

“Our focus today was to focus on our shot selection,” Cimino said. “I think we did a good job of that. When you make the extra pass, you set up a better shot, and we really wanted to be efficient with our shooting.”

Binghamton now turns its attention to a Wednesday night road matchup with Canisius, which defeated BU last season, 91-75. The Bearcats had nine costly turnovers in that game and will look to take better care of the ball this time around, as they did against Cedar Crest — only surrendering five.

“We had a point of emphasis to take care of the ball today and I thought we did a great job,” Cimino said. “This is something to build on. When you take care of the basketball, good things happen.”

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, New York.