On Sunday, the Binghamton women’s basketball team took on Maine at home for the second time in three days. The Bearcats battled the entire game and had multiple chances to win at the end of the match, but ultimately fell short, losing 48-46.

“The way we battled, not just the third quarter, the whole game I was really proud of them,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord.

BU (5-14, 1-8 America East [AE]) got off to a slow start in the first quarter, missing its first five shots. The Black Bears (11-10, 8-3 AE) capitalized on their struggles and took a 7-0 lead. This drought ended after junior forward Jalyn Van Dyke dropped in a layup after a steal. The Bearcats’ offensive struggles continued until the end of the first when freshman guard Camila Kirschenbaum hit a 3-point shot to make the score 11-8 in favor of Maine. The shot was only the second field goal the Bearcats recorded in the quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, BU closed its deficit to one point after a deep 3-point shot from junior forward Birna Benonysdottir banked in as the shot clock hit zero. This fused a spark of back-and-forth scoring between the Bearcats and Black Bears. Junior guard Denai Bowman began to heat up, hitting shots on consecutive possessions. Bowman finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, along with two blocks and a steal.

“[Bowman] just fills those stats up,” Shapiro Ord said. “[She also] played 40 minutes, and this is our fifth game in a week, they don’t look like a team that did that … I am so proud of them.”

Binghamton got its first lead of the day after forcing a miss on the defensive side and a Benonysdottir layup on the other end. On the very next possession, the Bearcats moved the ball quickly to the corner where junior guard Clare Traeger drove under the basket for a reverse layup. BU finished the quarter on an 8-0 run, gaining a 26-21 lead going into halftime. Traeger ended the game with 10 points and shot 50 percent from the field.

“[Traeger] was terrific tonight,” Shapiro Ord said. “She was attacking the rim and she was going strong to the ball … I’m really proud of her efforts tonight.”

The third quarter saw the Bearcats get off to a slow start, but under three minutes in, Bowman hit a jump shot at the left elbow to get Binghamton on the board. Defense proved to be the difference in this quarter as the Bearcats held Maine to seven points on 2-9 shooting and forced six turnovers in the quarter.

“We just had to make some little adjustments of where we were in our defense,” Shapiro Ord said. “We weren’t being disciplined the whole time.”

BU had a six-point lead going into the final quarter and looked to close the Black Bears out. The Bearcat lead evaporated toward the halfway point of the period after Maine hit a 3-point shot to take a two-point lead. Both teams started heating up after the five-minute mark as they traded baskets on multiple possessions.

“Unfortunately, at the end of this game we started to give them opportunities,” Shapiro Ord said. “They had 11 second-chance opportunities which you can’t do, and I think most of them were in the second part.”

Following two missed Maine free throws with 10 seconds left on the clock, BU found one final opportunity to draw the game or reestablish a lead. The Bearcats sprinted down the court on their possession looking to overcome the two-point deficit but were unable to get a shot off after stepping out of bounds by the baseline.

“Just the way we handled ourselves, we don’t look like a team with a record that we have,” Shapiro Ord said. “They don’t put their heads down. They keep after it and they battled the whole game.”

This was the Bearcats’ fifth game in the past nine days. BU went 1-4 in those games, with two of them being decided by two points or fewer.

“They’re gonna rest tomorrow and the rest of the day,” Shapiro Ord said. “Tomorrow they’ll be in school, but they will have a day off which will be great for them.”

The Bearcats will take on Vermont next on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.