Through its 2014-15 season, the Binghamton women’s basketball team has routinely trailed by a significant margin heading into halftime, only to bounce back in the second. On Thursday night against Stony Brook, which currently sits third in America East standings, the tables turned for the Bearcats (4-14, 2-13 AE). BU hung tough with the Seawolves (17-11, 10-5 AE) for most of the first half, only to see the visitors open the second with a 24-7 run to pull away for good, 68-59. With the loss, Binghamton dropped its 12th consecutive game.
“In that situation, you have to credit Stony Brook,” BU head coach Linda Cimino said of the run. “They came out blazing in the second half and just kept scoring in transition. Stony Brook is a good team — they’re in third place for a reason.”
Despite their eventual loss, the Bearcats came out as the superior team Thursday night. Freshman guards Imani Watkins and Jasmine Sina and senior forward Sherae Swinson incited scoring with consecutive baskets to put BU up, 6-0. After an SBU score, senior guard Gintare Surdokaite knocked down a 3-pointer to increase Binghamton’s lead to 9-2 through five minutes of play. The Seawolves responded with 12 consecutive points before a Sina 3 and back-to-back jumpers from sophomore forward Kristin Ross swung the scoreboard back in the Bearcats’ favor, 15-12.
The teams alternated baskets for the next six minutes of play. With three minutes remaining in the period, the score was tied at 25 before a layup from Stony Brook senior guard Jessica Ogunnorin followed by a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Christa Scognamiglio gave the Seawolves a five-point lead. Sina answered with a 3-pointer of her own to cut the deficit to 30-28, giving the Bearcats momentum heading into halftime.
“We come out slow sometimes,” Swinson said. “This game, we really focused on coming out hard the first half … So I think we really did well this game in jumping out with energy and playing hard.”
Whatever momentum BU carried into the break, however, evaporated moments into the second half. Stony Brook — led by eight points from senior forward Sabre Proctor and seven from sophomore guard Kori Bayne-Walker — opened up the half finishing fast break after fast break to increase its lead to 54-35.
“I think our transition defense could have been a little better,” Sina said. “I don’t think that’s something to look down upon, but something to improve on.”
Despite a late surge by Binghamton, cutting the deficit to single digits in the game’s final seconds, it was too little too late as the Bearcats were defeated, 68-59.
Although the loss racks BU with 12-game skid now and keeps the Bearcats in last in the AE, Cimino has seen positive signs in her team’s play.
“We have improved every single day and that’s all you want,” she said. “We’re doing good things. We’re moving the ball really well. We’re running our offense really well … [Today] is one of those games where you lose, but you know you played well. We didn’t play well for three minutes and it hurt us. The rest of the game we played well.”
On Senior Night, in her last regular-season home game at the Events Center, Swinson scored 15 points and grabbed eight boards. Sina added 17 while dishing out seven assists.
Stony Brook was led by Bayne-Walker, who finished with 23 points while connecting on all 11 of her free-throw attempts. Proctor, who currently ranks fourth in the AE in scoring at 15.2 points per game, had 16.
The Bearcats are set to conclude their regular season on Sunday when they hit the road to take on UMBC. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Retriever Athletic Center Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.