It’s America East tournament time once again, and the Binghamton University women’s basketball team is hoping to earn that coveted spot in the NCAA tournament. The Bearcats will need all of their talent, experience and recent momentum, though, to take on the Stony Brook University Seawolves and, potentially, the home team and No. 23 in the nation in the University of Hartford.
Binghamton (11-18, 7-9 AE) is the No. 5 seed in the tournament, which matches the team up with No. 4 seed Stony Brook (9-19, 7-9 AE). It’s the sixth straight year the Bearcats have been in the 4-5 matchup, losing both games as the No. 5 seed and winning the three games as the No. 4, though they would go on to lose in the semifinals each time. Last season Binghamton beat UMBC in the quarterfinals.
The Bearcats enter the game on a two-game winning streak, with a combined margin of victory of 27 points in those two games. Of course, those two matches were against the bottom two teams in the conference in the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, but that doesn’t make them any less important for the Bearcats.
“Right now I feel like we’re playing with a lot of confidence, having the two wins at the end of the season,” said Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl. “It’s really not a lot about how you’re doing during the year but how you’re playing at the end of the year, and I feel like we’re playing our best basketball right now.”
Perhaps most importantly for the Bearcats, the team’s two offensive stars seemed to get back on course over the last two games. Sophomore point guard Andrea Holmes put up 28 points, five rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals against UNH, right after a 14-point, 3-assist game against Maine. Senior Erica Carter, the team’s leading scorer, averaged 18 points and five 3-pointers in those games. Both players were named to the second-team All-Conference on Thursday.
“Coming off of New Hampshire, it was a good game for me and it was a big confidence booster being that it was the last conference game of the season,” Holmes said. “Coach Scholl supported me 100 percent in what … I was doing on the floor, and I feel like I can carry that into the tournament at Hartford this weekend.”
The Bearcats’ first challenge will be Stony Brook University. The Bearcats and Seawolves matched up twice this season. The first game was in Binghamton in January, and with five players scoring in double figures and 53 percent shooting for the game, the Bearcats took the match 74-58. It was a game in which the Seawolves led by as many as 11 points midway through the first half, before BU rallied back to take a six-point lead into halftime. SBU cut the lead to as few as a single point, but Binghamton pulled back ahead, eventually winning by the 16-point margin. Kirsten Jeter, a junior and leading scorer for the Seawolves, was held to just five points as foul trouble limited her effectiveness.
The second game between the teams took place in Stony Brook, and the results looked very different. Jeter put up a game-high 17 points in a 74-60 victory for the Seawolves. BU committed 22 turnovers and was outrebounded by 14, including 16-8 on the offensive glass. Holmes put up 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists, but it wasn’t enough.
Despite the loss, the Bearcats feel that they match up well against Stony Brook, especially with the convincing win at home. As a result, the team is extremely confident that Stony Brook is a team that they can beat.
“I think that we owe them this win because we definitely should’ve won the last game,” said senior guard Jackie Ward. “It was just, we didn’t play well together, our defense wasn’t good. So there are a lot of things that we can fix now and come in and get this win.”
The Seawolves are the top team in conference in steals, averaging 10 per game. They also allowed the fourth-fewest points in conference and rank just ahead of Binghamton in rebounding. Scholl noted that stopping Kirsten Jeter and running the ball are two priorities for BU in this game, but limiting Stony Brook’s second-chance and transition offenses would also be key.
“It’s not always off their first shot they take, but their second and third shot opportunities they get,” she said. “We have to take care of the basketball. Stony Brook’s a very quick team; turnovers that they create are usually scores on the other end for them.”
While the Stony Brook match is no guaranteed victory, it is difficult to avoid the temptation to look ahead at potential semifinal matchups. No. 23 University of Hartford is set to face the winner of the 8/9 play-in game in the quarterfinals, and seems a virtual lock to win against either opponent.
That would set up a semifinal match between the Bearcats and one of the top teams in the nation. BU lost by just five when the teams faced off in Binghamton and played competitively in Hartford. While all involved agree that the Bearcats will have to play near-perfect basketball in order to win, the team is eager and excited to play the Hawks again.
“I think it’s a big challenge,” said sophomore forward Viive Rebane. “It’s always fun to go against stronger teams, prove yourself that you can play against teams like that. Yeah, they’re nationally ranked but it’s not like they’re unbeatable or something. If we have a good game, if we work together, do our stuff, we can beat this team.”
The tournament this year will be very different experiences for certain players on the team. For sophomores Holmes and Rebane, it marks an opportunity to use the experience from playing in their first tournament last season in order to be even better this year. For Ward and Carter, this will be their fourth and final America East tournament. While Ward admits that everyone on the team is facing nerves before the start of the tournament, Carter just plans to “worry about the ending when it comes.” They all agree, though, that right now the focus is on the team.
“I think we have a good chance of doing well, or at least making a good name for ourselves, in the tournament,” Holmes said. “We were picked to finish third overall and I feel like we can at least live up to those expectations, or achieve higher.”
The Bearcats are set to tip off against Stony Brook on Friday at 8:15 p.m. in Hartford. If the Bearcats win, the semifinal is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.