The Binghamton women’s basketball team may have lost its seventh consecutive game on Wednesday against Hartford, but don’t let that fool you. The Bearcats (4-19, 2-9 America East) played one of their best defensive contests of the season in the 51-46 defeat, holding the third-place Hawks (13-11, 7-3 AE) to a 36.7 percent shooting clip from the field and forcing 19 turnovers.
“I was happy with the way we played,” BU head coach Linda Cimino said. “It is heartbreaking because we are working so hard and they have improved so much this year. They are diving on the floor for loose balls, they’re taking charges, and they’re getting after it.”
BU’s freshman point guard Jasmine Sina may stand only 5 foot 4, but in the first half, she could not be missed on the court. After Binghamton fell behind, 16-5, in the opening 10 minutes of play, Sina went on a roll. She poured in nine points — including draining two baskets from behind the arc — over the next 10 minutes as the Bearcats went on a 17-9 run. Binghamton held Hartford to just 30 percent shooting from the field and headed into halftime trailing by three. Sina scored 12 of BU’s 22 points in the period.
“My teammates were just getting me open,” Sina said. “[Freshman guard] Imani [Watkins] did a great job driving, she created a lot of attention and kicked it out to me. I got a lot of shots off of that. Everybody was working together on offense and we executed our plays really well.”
After the break, Hartford made a concerted effort to deny Sina the ball. The Bearcats responded by ramping up their defensive intensity, switching between man-to-man and zone defense as well as extending pressure full-court for certain possessions. BU forced six turnovers in the opening six minutes of the half and — led by four points from junior guard Kim Albrecht and three from senior forward Sherae Swinson — tied the score at 31.
“We defended well today,” Cimino said. “I thought we turned a corner. Our intensity was there, our effort was there and our kids were tough.”
The two teams alternated scores for the remainder of the period, with neither side commanding more than a five-point advantage. With just over three minutes of play remaining, a jumper by Hartford senior forward Cherelle Moore gave the Hawks a 47-43 advantage. Though Albrecht responded with a huge 3-pointer from the top of the key to pull the score to back within one, that would be the Bearcats’ last basket.
On the next possession, Hartford sophomore guard Deanna Mayza made a layup to increase the lead to three. The score would remain that way until the final eight seconds of play, when, on BU’s last possession, the Bearcats found themselves on the wrong end of a contentious call that granted Hartford possession. Binghamton fouled on the ensuing inbounds play, and the Hawks drained both free-throws to increase their lead to five and ice the game.
“I think today was kind of a heartbreaker,” Albrecht said. “We played so hard the whole game and we stuck with them the entire time. We were just so close to getting the lead down at the end … We are happy we played well, our defense was good, our intensity was good, but you always want to pull out the close games.”
Sina and Albrecht led BU’s offense with 14 points apiece, with Sina also dishing out five assists. Freshman guard Asia Baker pulled down a career-high eight rebounds off the bench.
The Bearcats are scheduled to return to action Saturday when they travel to take on Vermont. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, Vermont.