After defeating No. 3 seed and host University of Hartford 48-45 on Saturday in the America East quarterfinals, the Binghamton University women’s basketball team looked like it could make some noise. But as quickly as the Bearcats regained life after snapping the four-game losing streak it held coming into the tournament, University at Albany took it right out of them.
The No. 2-seeded Great Danes knocked off BU 58-50. The Bearcats’ season ended in the semifinals for the second consecutive season.
Despite having three players reach double-digits in scoring, Binghamton shot just 34 percent from the field. Senior Andrea Holmes led all scorers with 17 points, while senior forward Viive Rebane added a game-best 14 rebounds and 14 points. Sophomore guard Jasbriell Swain notched 12 points and 11 rebounds.
A total of 22 turnovers haunted Binghamton in its game against Albany, and the Great Danes capitalized with 26 points off the giveaways.
But without its upset over Hartford, BU wouldn’t have even gotten a shot at the Great Danes.
After losing its final four regular season games, the hopes for Binghamton (13-17) looked bleak heading into the quarterfinal game against host Hartford (19-12), but the Bearcats won in what was essentially a hostile road game.
BU started off cold, making only one of its first 10 shot attempts, but still managed to keep the game close at halftime. Senior guard Orla O’Reilly accounted for half of the team’s 18 first-half points, and Binghamton trailed by just seven heading into the locker room.
But early in the second half, Hartford quickly pushed the lead to 32-21 before a time-out from Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl. After the break, the Bearcats mounted a 16-4 run over the next 10 minutes to take a 37-36 lead. O’Reilly continued to lead Binghamton, scoring nine of the Bearcats’ 16 points during that run.
Senior guard Andrea Holmes explained how the team rallied around the words of its coach.
“I think … we just came out and gave everything we had,” Holmes said. “Coach told us before the game started that we really didn’t have anything to lose, so to leave it all out on the court and I think we did a good job doing that today.”
With just over 40 seconds remaining, O’Reilly hit a clutch jumper to stretch the lead to 45-41. She finished with 21 points on the night.
“I felt I needed to score more,” O’Reilly said. “I just wanted to be aggressive. It could have potentially been my last game, so I just wanted to go out and give everything I had. But I don’t think it was my offensive effort that won; I think it was our defense and how we played as a team.”
Holmes, the leading scorer in the America East, took on a different role in the Hartford game. The senior grabbed nine rebounds, two of which came in the game’s final minute, as she struggled from the field and accumulated seven of her nine points from the free-throw line.
After two missed free throws from Holmes with BU up three points and less than 10 seconds left, the Hawks had one last chance to send the game into overtime. A last-second shot came up short, and Holmes was there to secure the ball as time expired.
The win was the Bearcats’ second win in their last seven appearances against Hartford and their fifth victory all time in America East quarterfinal games.
Scholl attributed the win to a solid game plan and help from her coaching staff.
“Our coaching staff was phenomenal,” she said. “And I thought we put a great game plan together and just tried to force the issue defensively and try to rush them a little bit. I think in doing that, with doubling in the post a little bit, we were trapping in our zone, just causing them some problems so they couldn’t get settled into one thing. And I think that’s really what started it for us and that’s what created some of our offense when we went on those couple of runs. It was because of our defense that led to some easy baskets in transition.”
The quarterfinal win also marked Binghamton’s first-ever upset of a higher seed in the America East tournament.
But with the loss to Albany, BU’s season came to a close, ending the collegiate careers of the senior class of Holmes, Rebane and twins Orla and Sinead O’Reilly.
Holmes’ 1,557 points leaves her third on Binghamton’s all-time scoring list, while Rebane’s 916 career rebounds are the second-most in school history.
Albany is set to host University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the America East finals at 8 p.m. on Saturday.