Following a 73-59 victory over UMBC on Thursday, the Binghamton women’s basketball team earned its fifth consecutive victory with a 72-67 win over NJIT on Saturday afternoon. After trailing by 10 at the half, the Bearcats outscored NJIT by 15 in the second half. They are now solely in first in the America East with a 9-1 record, continuing their best start in program history.

“We’re really taking it one game at a time,” said Binghamton head coach Mary Grimes. “But we’ll have our time to reflect, we’ll have our time to understand what this all means, but in the moment, we are just happy.”

Junior guard Bella Pucci was first to score, but NJIT (14-10, 5-6 AE) quickly established a 9-4 lead. Binghamton (17-6, 9-1 AE) responded with a pair of free throws from junior forward Kendall Bennett before capturing an 11-9 lead off a five-point run from Pucci. The foes found themselves deadlocked twice more in the quarter, but the Bearcats pulled ahead thanks to a late three-pointer from Pucci and they ended the period leading by three.

The second quarter saw NJIT greatly outpace Binghamton offensively, drawing multiple fouls to go ahead 25-21. Junior guard Leah Middleton responded with a driving layup for the Bearcats, but the Highlanders fought back with eight consecutive points. An and-one layup from Pucci kept the Bearcats within single digits. Pucci continued her dominant game with a pair of free throws to close the half as the Bearcats trailed 38-28.

Binghamton quickly chipped away at the Highlanders’ lead in the third quarter, opening with a 6-0 run that Pucci kicked off with a pair of free throws. The Bearcats continued to eat into the Highlanders’ lead as a jumper from senior guard Meghan Casey made it 40-42. Soon after, Pucci put the Bearcats back ahead with a pair of three-pointers and a driving layup on the following possession. Despite conceding a three-pointer with 11 seconds in the period, the Bearcats led entering the final period.

“You try to teach them what adversity means, and you try to practice what adversity means, and you try to put them in situations where they have to overcome it and so far so good, but they just don’t ever want to quit, they don’t ever want to die,” Grimes said about her team. “They say that’s the extension of your coach and that’s who I am. There’s never anything that we are out of and these guys fight like crazy to just continue to get the wins at the end.”

Holding a 53-51 lead at the start of the fourth, the Bearcats kept up the pressure, with Pucci and Bennett both tacking on points. NJIT continued to creep up on Binghamton, however, coming within one with two minutes to play.

The Bearcats managed to hold off the comeback with a short-range jumper from freshman guard Carletta Bennett. A free throw apiece from Kendall Bennett and senior guard Kaia Goode in the final minute put the comeback out of reach as the Bearcats secured a 72-67 win.

Pucci led the Bearcats in scoring with a career-high 31 points, marking the first time a Bearcat has scored over 30 points in a game since 2023. Bennett nearly replicated her performance on Thursday against UMBC, this time notching 22 points and 13 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season and setting a program record for most double-doubles in a single season.

“Obviously, what [Grimes] said we do work on at practice, and it really comes from everybody,” Pucci said. “We all do not want to lose. We hate losing. So when we’re down, we’ve had a couple of games where we’ve had a comeback, so we know how to do it.”

The Bearcats will kick off a two-game road trip next week, where they will take on Vermont on Thursday, Feb. 12. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Roy L. Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, Vermont.