Red is the color for Valentine’s Day, but Binghamton hopes that green can steal two hours of the spotlight.

On the day of romance, the Binghamton University women’s basketball team (10-13, 5-5 America East) travels to Long Island to play Stony Brook (5-16, 3-6 AE) in a game that the Bearcats need to win to maintain their hold on fourth place in the America East standings. With a win, the Bearcats will sweep their rivals from downstate; they beat the Seawolves, 91-86, on Jan. 18 at the Events Center. Head coach Nicole Scholl believes that her team has a great chance to beat Stony Brook, but needs to come out with a lot of intensity.

“Right now for us, it’s just a matter of controlling our own destiny,” Scholl said. “We just need to keep winning games we should be winning. We need to play very hard if we want to maintain our fourth-place position.”

The formula for the Bearcats to beat the Seawolves is a relatively simple one: get Andrea Holmes in good positions on the floor. Holmes’ play has been a catalyst for the Bearcats in conference play. She averages 16.6 points per contest in conference wins, but her scoring dips to 9.8 points per game in losses, with her high in those games at 14 points (or less than her average in conference wins). The last time Binghamton squared off against Stony Brook, the Bearcats won, 91-86, in Binghamton’s highest-scoring game of the season. Holmes played a huge part in that; she erupted for a career-high 32 points on 9-17 shooting. While Holmes is tied with Erica Carter for first in scoring with 10.5 points per game, she has struggled somewhat as of late. The freshman point guard has shot just 22-54 over the team’s past five games. Team-wide injuries, as well as other squads keying in against her more than they did at the beginning of the season, has played a significant role in that. Scholl believes that her young guard will be able to elevate her game against Stony Brook.

“I think that teams now all understand how good of a player Andrea really is, and you see it in the way they defend her,” Scholl said. “I think that the Stony Brook game will be a good game to get her back on track.”

While Holmes stood out the last time Binghamton played Stony Brook, the Seawolves brought plenty to the table as well. Kirsten Jeter and Misha Horsey lit up the Bearcats for 42 points in their previous meeting. Jeter and Horsey have been the Seawolves’ two best players all season long, averaging 11.2 and 10.7 points per game, respectively. Scholl has made sure her team was wary of both players before the team’s trip to Suffolk County.

“I think Stony Brook had some injuries early on in the season,” she said. “Jeter was one of those injuries and she’s been playing really well for them. Horsey is tough in the open floor. When she gets going, she can be tough to stop.”

Binghamton heads to the Pritchard Gym to play Stony Brook on Saturday, Feb. 14, with their eyes set on sweeping the regular season series with their conference rivals. Binghamton then comes home to play the Boston Terriers on Wednesday, Feb. 18.