On Saturday at Maine, senior center Laura Franceski showed she’s still an invaluable member of Binghamton University’s women’s basketball team.
Behind Franceski, solid team defense and a strong second-half surge, the Bearcats (9-11, 4-3 America East) rolled to a 62-49 victory over the Black Bears (2-18, 0-7 AE). Franceski had a season-high 22 points, 11 rebounds and tied the school record with eight blocks, asserting herself as a dominant player in the low post.
Franceski normally averages 3.3 blocks and tallies 8.4 points per game. Head coach Nicole Scholl was very pleased with Franceski’s effort.
“She’s got a great overall game,” Scholl said. “It was nice to see her have a breakout game. I thought the girls realized that she had one-on-one in the post and they took advantage of that.”
Franceski’s eight blocks accentuated the solid team defensive effort that led to the victory over Maine. Binghamton held the Black Bears to 30 percent (18-60) shooting and 49 points. The Bearcats have been surrendering an average of just 62.9 points per game this season, which, according to Scholl, is part of what has placed them fourth in the America East behind UMBC, Boston University and Vermont.
“Defense is something we have been working on all year long,” Scholl said. “The players are starting to buy into the system and believe that defense turns into offense.”
Binghamton put the game away in the second half. The Bearcats went into intermission with a 25-23 advantage, but then opened up the game with a 29-11 run to build up a 20-point lead with 7:43 remaining in the game. Binghamton’s coach was very pleased with her team’s conditioning and felt it helped her team dominate the second half.
“Conditioning wise, our girls looked like we outran them in the second half,” Scholl said.
Freshman Andrea Holmes also had a very strong game against the Black Bears. Despite only shooting 3-9 from the field, Holmes filled the stat sheet with eight points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals. Her performance was reminiscent of the team’s previous game, a win against New Hampshire, in which Holmes shot 4-11 but was still able to post 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Scholl was very pleased with Holmes’ ability to help the Bearcats in a variety of ways, despite struggling with her shot.
“Andrea is becoming a very good decision-maker with the ball,” she said. “Her game seems to get better and better and better.”
For their efforts, Franceski and Holmes were honored by the conference yesterday, Franceski receiving Player of the Week honors and Holmes named the Rookie of the Week.
Coming into the contest, the Bearcats were undefeated at home in conference games, but winless on the road. While Maine is in last place in the conference, the Bearcats were able to score a road win in an America East game.
Scholl expressed her pleasure at the team’s first conference win away from the Events Center.
“Any time you can get a win on the road it’s an extra benefit,” Scholl said. “Confidence-wise, it is good to get a win on the road going into the Vermont game.”
Binghamton’s next game is at home against the Vermont Catamounts (11-9, 5-2 AE) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. With a win, the Bearcats will move into third place in the America East Conference standings.