After taking down Vermont 66-57 last Saturday, the Binghamton women’s basketball team hit the road once again to continue America East (AE) play, falling to UAlbany 60-52. The Bearcats held the lead after first half of play. However, it was the third quarter that made the difference as the Great Danes outscored BU 23-10 to take the lead. The Bearcats were unable to recover, dropping the contest 60-52.

“We had some really good defensive stops,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “But then in the second half, we weren’t attacking, you know. They picked up their defense a little bit more and we didn’t attack them.”

The Bearcats (9-14, 4-6 AE) opened up the scoring as junior forward Genevieve Coleman knocked down a jump shot. Graduate student guard Denai Bowman followed that up with a jump shot of her own, giving Binghamton a 4-0 lead. The Great Danes (20-3, 9-1 AE) got on the board themselves with a three-pointer to make the score 4-3. For the next few minutes, the game stayed close between the two teams until UAlbany took the lead, 10-8. Eventually, a layup from redshirt sophomore guard Jayden Weltz knotted it up at 10. For the remainder of the quarter, BU held on to a small lead, going into the second quarter up 15-14.

“You know, offensively, I thought [Coleman] did good,” Shapiro Ord said. “But we were out-rebounded by 32 to 25 and they had second chance opportunities — 16, and we had zero.”

The Great Danes scored five straight points to open the second period, capturing a 19-15 lead three minutes into the period. Coleman quickly answered, knocking down a three-pointer and jumper to give BU a 20-19 lead over UAlbany. Both teams exchanged points until Binghamton was able to go on a 7-0 run in the last five minutes of the quarter — while holding the Great Danes scoreless during that span, ending the half leading 27-21.

“I think offensively [Coleman] did a great job,” Shapiro Ord said. “[Coleman] had a big match up with [UAlbany’s senior guard] Kayla Cooper who I thought she did good with but I think it was a team defense … or rebounding we needed to do a better job.”

Coming out of halftime, Binghamton’s lead was cut to two early on in the period as UAlbany scored four straight points to cut the BU lead to two. Coleman cushioned the Bearcats’ lead, splashing a jump shot, to make it 30-25 BU. However, the Great Danes strung together a 11-0 run to take a 42-35 lead. Bowman stopped the bleeding with a jump shot, but the damage was done as the Bearcats trailed 44-37 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“We got in some foul trouble, and [Bowman] still had 15 points,” Shapiro Ord said. “But between her and [Coleman] — they only had one rebound. It was [Bowman’s] one rebound.”

Freshman forward Kendall Bennett put BU on the board in the first minute after draining one of two free throws. The Great Danes responded with four straight points to maintain a 10-point lead at 48-38. Baskets were exchanged back and forth, as BU cut the UAlbany lead to single digits at several points in the period. However, when the final buzzer sounded, Binghamton’s comeback came up short as it ended up on the losing side of things, falling 60-52 to the Great Danes.

“[Sophomore guard/forward Camryn Fauria], I thought had a good job, did a good job rebounding and [Bennett] came in and had a good performance too,” Shapiro Ord said. “She had six rebounds and eight points.”

Coleman led the team in points with 17, and right behind her was Bowman with 15. The Bearcats and Great Danes shot at an identical 40.8 percent clip from the field. However, UAlbany held the advantage at the free throw line in the victory, making 15-of-19 while Binghamton knocked down 6-of-9 from the charity stripe.

“We have to put together four quarters,” Shapiro Ord said. “If we can do that, we’ll be okay.”

The Bearcats will continue AE play as they travel to Rhode Island on Saturday, Feb 10. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Chase Athletic Center in Smithfield, Rhode Island.