The Binghamton women’s basketball team took on Bloomsburg on Thursday to continue their opening home stretch, earning themselves another dominant win as they strolled past the Huskies 92-44. The Bearcats managed to accumulate 25 steals during the game, tying a single-game school record.

“Sometimes it takes us a little while to adjust and understand our press rotations, and it just took us probably half of the first quarter to figure that out,” said Binghamton head coach Mary Grimes. “And once we did, we were able to get some steals and some easy baskets.”

Binghamton (2-0) opened its scoring book first, thanks to a three-pointer from junior guard Yanniah Boyd to give the Bearcats an early lead. Bloomsburg (0-1) answered back quickly, however, hitting a layup and making it a 3-2 game. The teams then traded layups, upping the score to 5-4, before a series of turnovers prevented any more points scored by the game’s next series of substitutions.

Junior guard Bella Pucci ended the scoring drought with a pair of successful free throws before scoring three more points of her own and assisting senior guard Kaia Goode for another one. The Bearcats continued to stack on points while their defense held strong against the Huskies, resulting in a 22-4 lead as the quarter ended.

“We’ve been working on free throws a lot during practice,” Pucci said. “There’s a lot of times where [coach Grimes] is like, ‘Make two in a row, or make 10 as a team’ and we’ve got to make 10 in a row as a team. So I feel like we work on it all the time, and we struggled last game with the percentage, and I feel like this game was really good.”

Junior guard Leah Middleton continued the Bearcats’ offensive surge in the second quarter, driving in for a layup to continue Binghamton’s run. The Bearcats kept attacking the net, scoring 25 unanswered points before the Huskies managed to end their run with a layup, making the score 29-6.

The teams then traded blows back and forth, resulting in a 36-11 lead for Binghamton as a media timeout was called. Both teams kept a much more even scorebook to finish out the second quarter, each scoring five more points, leading to a 41-16 score headed into the half.

“We want to try to get steals and score off our steals, and they were breaking their pressure really easy early on,” Grimes said. “Bloomsburg is a good Division II team, so we knew not to take them lightly. So once we figured out how to get our rotations and score, it’s a lot of fun basketball to play.”

Pucci opened up the scoring for the second half, hitting a layup and assisting junior forward Kendall Bennett with another to raise Binghamton’s lead to 45-16, but the Huskies quickly responded with two points of their own. Two free throws from freshman guard Ashley Redd and a pair of layups from the Bearcats brought them to a 51-18 lead at the next media timeout. As the clock continued winding down, the two teams kept going back and forth, with Binghamton leading Bloomsburg 58-27 as the third quarter came to a close.

“I really pushed [the newcomers] to figure out what we’re doing early, but I’m mindful to not add too much to them,” Grimes said. “I think the style of play helps them learn the game faster and be able to make mistakes early.”

Binghamton yet again opened scoring for the quarter thanks to a layup from freshman guard Klarissa Goode. Bloomsburg hit a pair of free throws and a three shortly after Binghamton drove in another layup to slightly cut back at the Bearcats’ lead. However, Binghamton continued to apply pressure, hanging eight more points on the Huskies in a row and going up 70-32.

The Bearcats continued to rack up points against their opponents as they took a commanding 47-point lead at 87-40 with just under two minutes remaining. Binghamton only continued to extend that lead as they went up 92-40, while Bloomsburg tacked on just four more points to close out the game, leaving a final score of 92-44.

“We treat every game as the most important game of the season,” Grimes said. “It’s the biggest game of the season and so we don’t look behind us, we don’t look too far ahead of us. So even in our scrimmages, we were focused on getting that win.”

Binghamton will continue its home opening stretch this season with a game against St. Bonaventure. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, on the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.