Headed into her third year for the Binghamton women’s basketball program, junior guard Bella Pucci is looking to continue the success she has built over her previous two seasons with the Bearcats.

Following a season where she reached double figures in scoring 15 times, and in rebounding a team-best four times — recording two double-doubles in the process — she was named to the third-team all-conference and America East All-Defensive Team. If Pucci replicates or improves upon her sophomore campaign, she looks to be a key piece for Binghamton on both sides of the court this season.

“I’m really excited about the season coming up,” Pucci said. “I feel like we have a really good mesh of girls. We’re really fast, we’re very athletic and there’s a lot to look forward to for all of us. Personally, I’m just looking forward to get back to doing what I do, playing the game that I love.”

Last season, Pucci averaged 9.3 points per game, ranking third on the team and greatly improving from her freshman year, where she averaged just 3.5 points per game. She notched a career-high performance against Molloy on Dec. 20 last year with 17 points in the game, and tied a career high in rebounds that same game with 13.

Pucci averaged 5.3 rebounds per game last season, tying for ninth in the America East and once again improving upon her first year at Binghamton, where she averaged 2.8 per game. She looks to continue this improvement as she heads into the upcoming season.

“A huge thing for me last year was confidence,” Pucci said. “I feel like I really found that in conference play. And obviously, like I said before, I’m surrounded by a lot of great teammates and they’re the reasons why I played how I played in the second half, and then in the off-season, I worked really hard. We all worked really hard in the summer when we were here in August and July, so I’m really excited.”

Coming off this off-season, Binghamton’s roster has seen some turnover. With seven new faces this season, Pucci hopes to bring a level of experience to this squad that can serve as an example to the new members, as she played in all 30 games for the team last season and started in 21 of them.

“I feel like [the chemistry’s] really good,” Pucci said. “I feel like obviously coming in the summer and having all that time where there’s not a lot of students here and we can really just mesh with each other. Not a lot of us have taken classes, so we really had a lot of time together.”

Along with her achievements on the court, Pucci has also had a successful academic career during her time at Binghamton, where she majors in sociology. She was a member of the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll and the fall and spring AD Honor Rolls last year, and was also named to the spring AD Honor Roll her freshman year.

“A lot of thanks to our academic advisors,” Pucci said. “We’re really set up with great people who are there for our team and there to help us, so I feel like we have study hall hours, we have a lot of people around us that are going to help us.”

As a large contributor to Binghamton’s high-press, high-turnover style of defense, finishing fifth in the conference in steals per game at 1.7 last year, Pucci continues to embrace her strengths in the defensive system.

“One thing for me is I love to get steals,” Pucci said. “So if we’re pressing the whole game, I feel like that’s a great opportunity for me to get steals and just do what I do best.”

Alongside her role increase, Pucci’s pregame ritual to help get in the right mindset tends to revolve around preparation and caffeine.

“I like energy drinks, so I’ll have an Alani,” Pucci said. “I’ve got to figure out my flavor for this year. And then me and a couple of my teammates, we shoot 90 minutes before every game, so that’s pretty good, and then me and [junior guard] Yanniah Boyd do pre-workout before we go out on the court, that helps us have energy.”