Coming off a blowout win against UMass Lowell, the Binghamton women’s basketball team had its three-game winning streak snapped with a 57-51 loss to Maine on Thursday night. With both teams getting off to a slow start in the first quarter, a strong second and third quarter from the Black Bears gave them the edge. Despite the visiting Bearcats’ late comeback in the fourth period, it was too little, too late as Maine came out victorious.

“We need to work on rebounding,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “We need to work on being more aggressive in the offensive end and really moving the ball, really trying to get downhill.”

The first few minutes started off slow for both BU [12-16, 7-8 America East (AE)] and Maine (20-9, 13-2 AE). Ultimately, it would be redshirt sophomore guard Ella Wanzer, who scored the first six points of the game, draining two three-pointers for the Bearcats. The Black Bears were held scoreless until the 4:36 mark in the first period, getting on the board with a free throw to make it 6-1. Neither Maine nor BU generated much in the first quarter, totaling 14 points between the two teams. The first 10 minutes of play ended with a score of 8-6 in Binghamton’s favor.

“I think we really had some missed opportunities,” Shapiro Ord said. “They out-rebounded us by like 16 or 17, which is not good,”

The Bearcats kicked off the scoring in the second period as freshman forward Kendall Bennett made a jump shot to make it 10-6. The Black Bears responded with a 9-0 run to take a 15-10 lead. After trading baskets, BU was able to tie the game at 17 after redshirt sophomore guard Jadyn Weltz knocked down a jumper, but Maine then went on a seven-point run to regain the lead at 24-17. Sophomore guard Meghan Casey layed one in with four seconds left in the half, to cut the Black Bears’ lead to 24-19 going into halftime.

“A team like that, you can’t do [that],” Shapiro Ord said. “You can’t give them so many second chance opportunities. You’ve got to come up with those [rebounds].”

Maine opened up the second half with a seven-point uninterrupted run to take a 13-point lead at 32-19. Weltz then made a free throw and layup which led to a 10-0 run from the Bearcats in response, helping them get within two points as the Black Bears still led 32-30. After the momentum shifted back to Maine, the Black Bears ended the period on a 7-0 run take a 42-32 lead going into the fourth quarter of play.

“[Maine has] really good three-point shooters, and they did a good job getting to the rim,” Shapiro Ord said. “[Maine was] getting fouls calls on them so that they were able to get to the free throw line, where we didn’t as much … We didn’t make our free throws like we typically do.”

Maine extended its lead at 46-32 after scoring the first four points of the fourth period. The Bearcats stayed within striking distance with 7-2 run — thanks to baskets from graduate student guard Denai Bowman and Wanzer — to make it a nine-point game with just under six minutes remaining. BU cut the Maine lead to five with 40 seconds to go with Bennett laying on in. However, this was the closest the Bearcats would get, as the Black Bears held onto their lead for a 57-51 victory.

“They out-rebounded us 46 to 28,” Shapiro Ord said. “That’s tough, and them having seven-second chance opportunities, that’s like 14 points right there,”

Leading the way in points was Wanzer with 14. Right behind her was Bowman with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Also, with 1,476 points scored throughout her career, Bowman is now tied with Kai Moon for fifth place in program history.

“I’m watching the game right now, our game, just to see what we need to do better,” Shapiro Ord said. “We’re on the bus right now heading to [UNH]. We have an early morning practice, and we’ll just regroup. It’s a big game. We got to handle our business and make sure we come out on top for this one.”

Binghamton took on UNH in its final AE regular season matchup on Saturday, March 2. Tipoff was set for 1 p.m. at the Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, New Hampshire.