After strong contributions to push the Bearcats through to the America East semifinals last season, senior guard Bella Pucci returns with her eyes set on the championship title. Her fourth and final season on the Binghamton women’s team comes with great anticipation.

Ending last season ranked first on the Binghamton team, sixth in the conference with 15.1 points per game and third in the America East with an .832 free-throw percentage, Pucci was named to the second-team all-conference. Starting in all 33 games her junior season, Pucci had some impressive showings, most notably breaking her career record of 29 points in one game, including three straight free throws and a layup in double overtime to win against Akron, and a buzzer-beater to beat Bryant in conference quarterfinals that went on to be featured as an ESPN Sportscenter’s Top Play last March.

Coming into this season, both Pucci and her teammate, senior forward Kendall Bennett, were selected to the America East preseason all-conference team. This is only the third time in program history that Binghamton has had two players named to the team.

Pucci said her goals remain team-oriented.

“Some of my personal goals for the season are definitely [to] win a championship,” Pucci said. “This school hasn’t won a championship for women’s basketball. So, I mean, me personally, that’s one of my main goals.”

Having spent all four years at Binghamton, Pucci’s team spirit runs deep. Welcoming only three new Bearcats this season and retaining a majority of the past players, the team has not only technical prowess, but familiarity between its members and years of built trust.

“And then for the team, obviously we have a ton of returners, which is amazing because we gel together so well,” said Pucci. “And practices have been super good recently too. So I’m super excited to start playing games and not just playing against each other, playing against other teams and just show people what we can really do.”

This synergy has not only been recognized within the team, but also by preseason polling. In a vote by the nine head coaches in the America East conference, Binghamton won first with 60 points and six of the nine first-place votes, even without counting the vote of head coach Mary Grimes. The previous all-time highest preseason placement for Binghamton was third place, most recently in the 2017-18 season.

“This year is going to be a great year, and we’re super excited about it and to be ranked number one and finally get the recognition from the conference that we feel like we deserve,” Pucci said. “We haven’t gotten that recognition the last couple of years, but finally we’re on top, and we just gotta keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Though the pressure is on for Binghamton in this season’s competition for the America East championship, Pucci and the rest of the Bearcats are unfazed.

“I don’t think we’ve been ranked number one [before],” said Pucci. “So people are saying, ‘it’s a lot of pressure on you guys, blah, blah, blah.’ But we’re not really focused on that. We don’t really feel any pressure, to be honest. We’re just, like I said before, we’re trying to focus [on] one game at a time.”

On top of being unbothered by the anticipation for both her own and her team’s performance, Pucci emphasized that merit comes not from an individual, but rather from a team that can support each other and recognizes that while they all play different roles, they all have equal contributions to the team.

“I try not to really focus on being the leader of anything,” she said. “I feel like all of us play the same role. Obviously, we all have different roles, but we’re all out there in the court together. Not one person is going to win the game. Coach tells us all the time that it doesn’t just say my name on the scoreboard. It doesn’t just say someone else’s name on the scoreboard. It says home or guest or whatever it is. So it’s not just one person that’s going to win the games for us. We all have to stay together and play together, which is going to be the most important thing.”