After falling 58-57 in the final seconds of the game at home to Cornell, the Binghamton women’s basketball team’s losing streak extended to four games as the team fell 73-62 to Pitt on the road on Sunday night. After BU took an early lead off of strong shooting, the game would go back and forth between the squads. However, the Bearcats struggled offensively in the fourth quarter while the Panthers scored 14 unanswered points, outscoring BU 23-8 in the period to seal an 11-point victory.

“I felt like everybody was ready,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “We had some big players step up … so you gotta just keep building on everything. Focus forward. Just continue to focus forward and keep believing in the process because it’s coming.”

After Pitt won the tip and got on the board with a driving layup, redshirt sophomore guard Ella Wanzer got to work by nailing two three-pointers on Binghamton’s next two possessions to give BU a 6-4 lead. The lead was extended to four when redshirt sophomore guard Jadyn Weltz found sophomore forward Camryn Fauria on a fast break, with Fauria sinking in a floater from mid-range. From there, the Bearcats controlled the game as baskets from Wanzer, Weltz and junior forward Genevieve Coleman contributed to BU’s 22-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“You saw how we shared the ball,” Shapiro Ord said. “It wasn’t just ‘come down and launch it, come down and launch it.’ We really shifted their defense a little bit, and we would try to go inside out to get not just good shots but great shots. Going inside out because we are able to shoot the three is nice, and we got some three-point runs.”

Things picked up where they left off to open the second quarter, as graduate student guard Denai Bowman forced a turnover and swished in a jumper on the possession to make it 24-14. Pitt began to shoot more aggressively as they cut BU’s lead down to five with a sequence of back-to-back layups, but sophomore guard Meghan Casey ended the Panther run with a corner three-pointer to make it 29-21. However, the Panthers continued to claw back, and after a three-point play, they took a 35-34 lead over BU entering halftime.

Playing from behind for the first time since the opening minutes, Wanzer got Binghamton on the board in the second half by knocking down a three-pointer, before proceeding to connect with Fauria on the next possession, who drained a jump shot to cut the Pitt lead to three. Eventually, Binghamton retook the lead at 52-49 when freshman guard Kaylee Krysztof — knocked down back-to-back three-pointers. Then, a skip pass from Bowman to freshman forward Kendall Bennett for an open layup capped off Binghamton’s third quarter, entering the final period up 54-50.

“In the third quarter, I thought we really came out swinging,” Shapiro Ord said. “I thought, with scoring 20 points, we did a really nice job. It was just that fourth-quarter fall of not knocking down shots.”

Despite entering the fourth quarter with the lead, BU did not stay in front for long as the team surrendered a 14-0 run to Pitt. The Bearcats’ offense stalled out down the stretch, going just 3-for-15 from the field in the period. A driving layup from Weltz stopped the bleeding to make it a 64-56 game. This was followed by a sequence of back-to-back three-pointers by Wanzer which cut the Pitt lead to seven. With less than a minute to go, the Bearcats were forced to foul. The Panthers then iced the game from the free throw line as Binghamton suffered a 73-62 loss.

“We gotta play to win and not play to just get by,” Shapiro Ord said. “No one thinks we’re trying to play to lose, but I think all of a sudden we’re getting a little sticky with the ball. We’re not flowing like we would be, and we’re just not as strong with the basketball. In those stretches, we weren’t getting good offensive looks.”

Leading the Bearcats’ offense on Sunday night was Wanzer, putting up 20 points off of 7-for-16 shooting. Weltz and Fauria also added 11 and nine points respectively.

The Bearcats will return home for a two-game home stand that starts against Canisius. Tip-off is set for 6:07 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8 at the Dr. Bai Lee Court in the Events Center in Vestal, New York.