The Maine Black Bears put four players in double figures on Sunday afternoon, and rallied from an eight point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the Binghamton Bearcats 48-46 in America East women’s basketball at the Events Center in Vestal, New York. Maine has now won five games in a row, sweeping the two game road swing on the weekend with Binghamton.
A three-pointer by Alba Orois and layups by Paula Gallego and Maeve Carroll allowed Maine to break out to an early 7-0 first quarter lead. The Black Bears would lead 13-8 after the opening 10 minutes. Despite a tough 2-12 start from the floor by Binghamton in the first, they shot 7-12 in the second quarter scoring the final eight points of the first half to take a 26-21 lead into the break. Maine would cut it a point early in the third on two free throws from Carroll, but the guests went cold from the floor again as Binghamton scored eight of the final 11 points for a 34-28 advantage headed to the fourth. After the Bearcats took their largest lead of the day by eight early in the final period, the Black Bears came to life scoring 10 straight to take the lead on two layups by Carroll and three-pointers by Anne Simon and Caroline Bornemann. The two teams would go back and forth tied three times after that, until Alba Orois nailed a three-pointer which ended up the game winner to make it 45-44 Maine with 1:34 remaining. After Bornemann hit a layup for a three point lead, Binghamton came right back just eight seconds later to get within a point on a Denai Bowman short jumper in the paint with 24 seconds left. Orois hit 1-2 from the line for the final scoring. The Bearcats had a chance to tie or go ahead twice in the final seconds, as Cassidy Roberts missed a foul line jumper with 13 seconds showing on the clock. After two missed free throws at the line by Simon with 10 seconds left, Hayley Moore would turn it over by stepping on the end line trying to go to the basket. With just over a second left, Maine had the inbounds pass stolen but a wild off balance desperation shot off the steal by Clare Traeger missed everything as the buzzer sounded.
Carroll led Maine in the win with 12 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists. Simon and Bornemann had 11 points each. Simon added four rebounds, while Bornemann had seven boards and five assists. Orois chipped in 10 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. The only other scorer on the day for the Black Bears was Paula Gallego with four points. Bowman led Binghamton with 17 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Traeger had 10 points. The Bearcats fall to 5-14, 1-8 in America East. Maine is now 11-10, 8-3 in conference play and over the .500 mark overall for the first time this season. The Bears return home to host Albany on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Orono at Memorial Gym (The Pit).
