Following a tough loss on its home floor, the Binghamton University women’s basketball team was eager to get back on the court to turn things around.

This past week, the Bearcats had a chance to bounce back with two road games against Army and Niagara University. On Tuesday, Binghamton scratched out a victory at Army, 49-47, but fell to Niagara on Saturday, 64-53.

Every time BU found itself with a comfortable lead in the first game, Army came storming back. Up 26-24 at halftime, the Bearcats went on a 10-2 run midway through the second half to go ahead 41-33 and give themselves some breathing room.

“In the second half we built a nine-point lead and kind of held on to that for as long as we could,” Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl said. “We got some good quality minutes from our bench and I think that helped in keeping us fresh and helping us shoot the ball a little bit better.”

With 4:45 left to play, senior forward Viive Rebane, who scored a game-high 17 points, hit a 3-pointer to extend the Bearcats’ lead to 48-39. But the Black Knights answered by notching the game’s next eight points to pull within one point with two minutes left in regulation.

Senior guard Orla O’Reilly, who finished with 14 points, hit the front end of a one-and-one with 19.5 seconds remaining to give Binghamton a two-point lead. That would prove to be enough as the Bearcats’ defense kept Army from scoring on its final two possessions.

“Anytime that you can go on the road and get a win, you’re going to take it, regardless of what the score is,” Scholl said. “It was good for our players to be in a close situation like that where they really had to battle in the end. It showed a lot of character about our players.”

The Bearcats accumulated 10 steals in an impressive defensive effort and held Army to less than 50 points.

“It’s something that gives us confidence,” Rebane said about the way her team played defense against Army. “Throughout the game, even if our offense wasn’t doing great, we could always rely on our defense. I think that was the main key.”

On Saturday, Binghamton was plagued by 20 turnovers that would lead to 26 Niagara points. Binghamton was also limited to just four 3-point attempts in the game and was outscored 17-9 in second-chance points.

“I thought we had a lot of unforced turnovers that led to some easy points for them,” Scholl said.

The Bearcats were fighting back the entire game after a 10-0 run by the Purple Eagles put Niagara up 22-13 with 5:24 left in the first half.

Binghamton would pull to within eight points after sophomore guard Jasbriell Swain, who tallied 13 points, converted a three-point play to make the score 58-50. But Niagara scored four points in the next 23 seconds to ice the game.

“We knew it was going to be challenge going up to Niagara playing on their home floor,” Scholl said. “I thought that from the start, our lack of intensity and focus on what we needed to do to defend them wasn’t great.”

The loss overshadowed senior guard Andrea Holmes’ season-high 24 points to go along with her four assists and four steals.

“It was nice to see her get back on track offensively again,” Scholl said. “She’d been struggling with her shooting as of late so it was nice to see her get back into a rhythm. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of other players step on the offensive side of things tonight.”

The Bearcats have a week off before returning to the Events Center for a scheduled 2 p.m. tip-off against Rider University on Saturday. Then they’ll play host to University of Massachusetts, Amherst on Monday before heading south for their final two nonconference games at the Saint Peter’s Holiday Classic. From there, the Bearcats are set to play the first of 16 regular season America East matchups when they battle University of Maine on Jan. 2 at the Events Center.