On Wednesday, the Binghamton women’s basketball team concluded its five-game homestand with a conference matchup against Vermont. The Bearcats trailed by one point at halftime but struggled to produce offensively as the Catamounts’ second-half surge gave them a 47-34 win.

“We came out swinging but they came back at us,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “It’s a game of runs … We got to get four quarters together.”

The Bearcats (5-15, 1-9 America East [AE]) opened the game making shots and shutting Vermont’s (14-9, 8-4 AE) offense down. After a jumper from junior guard Cassidy Roberts, BU led 9-0 as the team made four of its first five shots. The run ended when the Catamounts swiped the ball and threw a heave from BU’s 3-point arc, sparking a fast break that ended in a 3-point play after a foul. The Bearcats cooled off, hitting only two more field goals in the quarter which the Catamounts used to creep back into the game as they trailed 13-10 entering the second frame.

“I felt like we were ready,” Shapiro Ord said. “I was really excited and once a couple of bunnies didn’t go, we got in our head a little bit.”

Throughout the second quarter, the teams were locked in a tight defensive battle, but Vermont consistently earned second-chance opportunities. The Catamounts corralled four offensive rebounds in the first six minutes as the Bearcats’ lead diminished to one point. As the clock was winding down and both teams were locked 21-21, Vermont drove and junior forward Birna Benonysdottir committed a blocking foul that gave it two shots from the charity stripe with one second remaining. The Catamount knocked down one of two, giving a one-point lead to the away side at halftime.

Of BU’s 39 total rebounds, junior guard Clare Traeger grabbed the most with a career-high 17.

“[Traeger’s] always crashing the boards and she [thought] ‘What can I do to help my team?’ and that’s something that she knew she had to do,” Shapiro Ord said. “We still need to get a few more back baskets from her … We’re gonna start getting some double-doubles from her.”

Throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Bearcats struggled to replicate the offensive surge they displayed in the first quarter. Until junior guard Denai Bowman made a free throw with 3.2 seconds to go, the only BU athlete to score in the third quarter was Benonysdottir, who scored seven points in the penultimate quarter while adding a block. Despite her efforts, Vermont turned its one-point lead into a seven-point cushion going into the final frame after holding BU to 20 percent shooting from the field in the quarter.

“A lot of teams are doubling [Benonysdottir] because it’s very hard to defend her,” Shapiro Ord said. “I thought she did a really good job of just saying, ‘I got to get to the basket.’”

The final quarter began with a layup from Traeger which the Catamounts followed up with a 9-0 run as BU went on a scoring drought that lasted over six minutes. With three minutes left, senior guard Hayley Moore was open in the paint and laid the ball into the bucket, breaking a dry spell for both herself and the team. Benonysdottir added a free throw to give her a team-high 15 points, but with only 13 second-half points, BU could not keep up with the Catamounts.

“Our little bunnies weren’t going in, some easy shots,” Shapiro Ord said. “When we came out like gangbusters and we’re knocking down shots, we still missed a few early but that started to get into a couple of kids’ heads I think and it affected them throughout the second half.”

Besides Benonysdottir, no Bearcat scored more than five points. The junior was also the only starter to shoot above 25 percent from the field while being the only athlete to knock down a 3-pointer. Coming into the game, Bowman led the team in scoring and was second in the AE with 14.7 points per game. In Wednesday’s match, she recorded only five points on 2-8 shooting.

“We’ve been waiting for someone else consistently to step up,” Shapiro Ord said. “Each game we need three kids to step up at least and [Bowman] had it tough. [Vermont] did a great job on her, really keeping the paint clogged so she couldn’t just drive in there. We need a couple more people to step up.”

Binghamton is scheduled to take on New Hampshire on Saturday, Feb. 12. Tipoff is set for noon at the Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, New Hampshire.