Binghamton University women’s basketball (7-11, 2-3 America East) takes the court tomorrow against the New Hampshire Wildcats (5-14, 2-3 America East) in a matchup of conference rivals. The Wildcats come to the Events Center on a roll, having won their past two games. The Bearcats come in having dropped their last game, 78-63, at the hands of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

New Hampshire will pose a tough challenge for sixth place Binghamton, who will have to be sharp to beat the fifth-place team in the conference. However, the Bearcats have a winnable game in front of them, and should be able to come away with the victory.

Dating back to 2002, Binghamton has not lost a game to New Hampshire at home; the Wildcats have yet to win in the Events Center. Another auspicious signal is the Bearcats’ improving play at home: after starting the season with four losses in five games at the Events Center, Binghamton is on a two-game winning streak. Head coach Nicole Scholl has been satisfied with the team’s fan support, and believes it has helped the team play better in the games Binghamton has hosted.

“Even over break, without students, fan support was great,” Scholl said. “The people around there pay attention to their teams. It’s nice to go to the gym and have fans in the stands.”

Binghamton’s improving play after the end of the fall semester is promising, and indicates that the Bearcats have a very good chance to win against the Wildcats on tomorrow. After starting the 2008-09 season at 4-8, Binghamton has gone 3-3 during the month of January. Despite coming into the month on a four-game losing streak, the Bearcats have not lost consecutive games during the month of January. Scholl has attributed her team’s improved performance to being able to focus more on basketball and less on other things.

“[Winter] Break is a good time to just focus on basketball,” Scholl said. “There were less distractions than during the semester and we were able to do some good things.”

Another reason to be optimistic about the upcoming game against New Hampshire is the rapidly improving Andrea Holmes. Holmes, Binghamton’s freshman point guard, has been playing excellent basketball as of late, reflective of her team’s improvements. Holmes scored at least eight points a game in the first six games of January, including hammering Stony Brook and Cornell with 32 and 24 points, respectively. Scholl has been very satisfied with Holmes’ improvement.

“Andrea is getting better and better every game,” Scholl said. “She’s getting more comfortable within the system. Andrea has a lot of responsibilities as our starting point guard and her decision-making is continuing to improve.”

However, there are things that Binghamton needs to worry about coming into their game with New Hampshire. According to their records in conference play, the Bearcats and Wildcats are two evenly matched teams. Both teams beat Albany and Stony Brook, and lost to Boston and UMBC. Coach Scholl wants to make sure her team is not taking New Hampshire for granted.

“New Hampshire’s record [5-14] doesn’t show it, but they are playing very well,” she said. “If we want to win, we need to be focused.”

Scholl is also wary of Candace Williams and Amy Simpson, the Wildcats’ top two players. The two have combined to score 30.1 points per game this season.

“Their two big players are Williams and Simpson, two juniors. They score a lot of points and are big keys.”

The two teams will square off tomorrow at the Events Center.