As the conference season gets into full swing, teams turn to certain players for consistent performances to anchor their teams. The Binghamton University men’s basketball team has D.J. Rivera averaging 20-plus points a night; the men’s soccer team has Jason Stenta. The women’s basketball team has been searching for that go-to player, and they may have found her.

Freshman point guard Andrea Holmes has emerged as a legitimate threat for Binghamton. She started the year struggling from the field and trying to get used to the Division I basketball style. Her shot selection was indicative of a freshman on an uneven footing, but as of late she has come out of her shell and has led her team to some success to start the conference season.

Holmes is averaging 9.7 points per game so far. She scored a career-high 32 points in a 91-86 win against Stony Brook last week. She shot nine for 17 from the floor and hit 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. She followed her career-best performance with a team-high 14 points in a loss against UMBC on Saturday. She was named America East Rookie of the Week this month after averaging 20 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the two games that week.

Holmes’ arrival at Binghamton provided a true point guard for the Bearcats, relieving guard Muffy Sadler, who last year was forced to play away from her natural two-guard position. With Holmes coming in, Erica Carter and Sadler play the wing and Holmes is the playmaker. This should continue to help Binghamton run the half-court offense.

You have to like her potential: barring health issues, she could develop into an All-Conference player. She has the remainder of this season as well as the next three years to grow into a team leader, providing some positive light for the future of the program.

Despite Holmes’ recent surge, the team is still struggling on the road. The Bearcats have dropped six of their last seven road games and have five more road games before postseason play. This is a problem that many teams face and few overcome: figuring out how to win on other teams’ courts.

With the America East Championships taking place in Hartford, the Bearcats need to solve this problem in order to keep the hope of a title. The Bearcats did give Hartford trouble in Connecticut earlier this month in a conference matchup before falling to the Hawks, 63-54. This is a game they can build on and take with them to the conference tourney.

If the Bearcats can take a couple of road games against the remaining conference teams and finish top six in the AE, they will provide themselves with the best chance to win come March. The top four teams in the AE look very strong, with Boston leading the way with a 6-0 conference record, followed by Vermont, Hartford and UMBC. The Bearcats currently sit in sixth place, leading Albany by one game.

Anything can happen in the America East; just look back at the 2007 AE Championships, when seventh-seeded UMBC staged a Cinderella story and took the conference trophy. The win sent shock waves through the America East and has given teams that struggle in the regular season the belief that anything is possible.