Anne Simon had a team high 17 points, and Maeve Carroll added 16 on Friday night as the Maine Black Bears defeated the Binghamton Bearcats 54-45 at the Events Center in Vestal, New York in America East women’s basketball action.
Binghamton shot just 1-14 from the floor in the first quarter as Maine got out to a 10-4 lead after the opening 10 minutes. The Black Bears finished off a 12-0 run to make it 14-4 early in the second on a layup by Carroll. The guests took their biggest lead of the first half when Simon knocked in a three-pointer making it 23-9 with 1:54 left, but the Bearcats fought back with seven straight to cut it to 23-16 at the halftime break. The hosts would slice it to five on a couple of occasions in the third quarter, but Maine still held a 39-30 advantage headed to the fourth. After the Black Bears opened their biggest lead of the night at 48-33 on a three-pointer by Olivia Rockwood with 5:31 to play, Binghamton made a run of 11-2 to trim it to six with 1:18 left on a three from Clare Traeger. A layup by Alba Orios and a jumper by Caroline Bornemann put it away though for the Bears fourth straight win.
Simon added four rebounds to her point total, while Carroll had a double double with 12 rebounds and also three assists. Orois finished with 11 points, five rebounds, and six assists. Maine is now 10-10 and 7-3 in America East. Denai Bowman led all scorers in the loss for Binghamton with 21 points and five rebounds. Traeger added 10 points and seven rebounds. The Bearcats fall to 5-13, 1-7 in conference play. This is the first time this season that the Black Bears have been back to that .500 overall record. Maine and Binghamton finish off their two game weekend head to head on Sunday in New York with tipoff slated for 12 p.m.
