Though senior Andrea Holmes is the undisputed star of the Binghamton University women’s basketball team, fellow senior Orla O’Reilly led the team to an 80-70 victory Tuesday night in its road debut at Siena College.
While O’Reilly scored 23 of her career-high 29 points in the second half, she played more of a distributing role in the first half, tallying five assists. The Bearcats (2-0) used runs of 14-4 and 20-6 to take a 40-28 lead into the locker room.
Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl said she had emphasized the importance of a strong start before the game.
“Going to somebody’s home floor, especially at the end of the game, you’ve got to be at least 10 points, if not more, better than they are,” she said. “I thought we came out with a good focus and were ready to play right away and we just took it to them right away.”
Binghamton maintained that focus in the early stages of the second half, extending its lead to 13 with 11:36 remaining, but Siena used an 11-2 run over the next five minutes to pull within four.
The Saints capped off the run with a one-and-one from junior Lily Grenci that seemingly shifted the momentum in Siena’s favor. Scholl said she used an ensuing time-out to remind her team of its game plan.
“It was really just about us maintaining composure and being a little more patient in our halfcourt,” she said. “We had to make some adjustments with our defense and just get back to what we know we could do — rebound the basketball and try to run a little bit.”
On three of Binghamton’s next five possessions, O’Reilly buried 3-pointers to give the Bearcats a nine-point cushion. Still, Siena refused to succumb and trailed by five with 1:02 on the clock.
O’Reilly converted five of her six free-throw attempts down the stretch to preserve the lead, sending the Bearcats back to Binghamton with an 80-70 win in their first road game of the season. She finished with 29 points, five assists, five rebounds and six 3-pointers.
“Orla was fantastic in the second half,” Scholl said. “Siena had switched into a zone and Orla is one of our best 3-point shooters. I think players around her were able to find her, and she was knocking down shots when we needed her to.”
Scholl said her team’s defense was good “in spurts,” but thought it could have been more consistent. The Bearcats, who allowed opponents to shoot just 35.1 percent from the floor in the 2010-11 season, allowed the Saints to convert on 46.6 percent of their field goals.
“It could have easily been a 20-point game as opposed to just a 10-point game if our defense had been a little bit tighter,” Scholl said. “But give Siena credit — they’re a good team. They made a lot of good plays, they hit some big shots, and they’re always tough.”
Holmes and senior Viive Rebane joined O’Reilly in double-figures, scoring 17 and 13, respectively. Holmes, who suffered a torn ACL in her left knee last February, played 35 minutes and scored 12 of her points in the opening half.
“I really think the concern is over with [Holmes] — it’s obvious from her performance the other night,” Scholl said. “She’s back in form where she left off last year. She had a good first half and had a little spurt there where she kind of went on a run.”
Binghamton will participate in the four-team Subway Classic in Minnesota this weekend, facing University of Minnesota in the opening round and either University of Nevada or North Dakota State University in the second round.
Minnesota (1-2) won its season opener against University of Arkansas but has since lost consecutive games to Florida State University and University of South Florida.
“Playing Minnesota, a Big Ten team, is going to be a good challenge for us,” Scholl said. “For us, our focus really needs to be on coming out and playing strong and playing aggressive right away.”
Tip-off against the Golden Gophers is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Williams Arena.