VESTAL, N.Y. – In a battle for first place in the America East, Binghamton (8-9, 3-1 AE) was defeated 70-62 to New Hampshire (13-3, 3-0 AE) in a women's basketball game on Saturday afternoon at the Events Center.

Junior center Alyssa James and junior guard Imani Watkins each scored a game-high 21 points. James also had the game-highs with three blocks and five steals. Watkins, meanwhile, added five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Furthermore, Watkins reached the 20-point mark in scoring for the second game in a row.

Watkins now has 1,232 career points and moves into seventh place all time in program history. Against New Hampshire, she surpassed Karen McClelland (1,227 points from 1996-00) and Alicia Brennan (1,229 points from 1986-90). She has 24 career games with at least 20 points.

James, meanwhile, reached the 20-point mark for the fifth time in her career. In addition, she recorded her fourth straight game with at least three blocks. During that stretch, the reigning America East Defensive Player of the Year has averaged 4.0 blocks per contest.

New Hampshire came out of the gate strong, taking a 19-5 lead in the opening 5:44. Brittany Lai, who finished with 16 points, scored a team-best five points during that stretch.

The Bearcats regrouped and pulled to within 40-36 at the break. Freshman guard Carly Boland sank the final jump shot right before the buzzer to end the second period.

Boland struck again with 5:09 left in regulation, nailing a three-point field goal to tie the game at 58-58. It would be, however, the only deadlock of the afternoon.

After calling a timeout, the Wildcats retook control of the game with a 7-0 run in the ensuing three minutes of play. Carly Pogue, who ended the day with 17 points, punctuated the run with a three-point play.

James trimmed the deficit to 65-60 with 1:58 left to go but baskets by Pogue and Kat Forgarty over the next 1:15 put the game out of reach. Fogarty finished with a team-high 19 points.

"I thought we played hard today," head coach Linda Cimino said. "With five minutes to go, it was a tie game so we know we are capable of playing with anyone. If that's the best team in the conference, we know we are right there with them. We didn't make our shots at the end of the game, they capitalized and that was the difference."

Playing against a team ranked No. 19 in the nation in points allowed (54.9), Binghamton shot 43.9 percent from the field (25-57). New Hampshire, however, shot 54.5 percent (30-55) and scored 46 of its points in the paint.

The Wildcats also outrebounded the Bearcats 37-24.

Binghamton hosts Albany on Thursday at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Watkins and James are the first two Binghamton players to reach 20 points in the same game since Feb. 24, 2016. On that date, Watkins had a career-high 30 points and current sophomore forward Rebecca Carmody added a career best 22 points against UMBC … Rachel Laws (2002-06), who was inducted into the Binghamton Athletic Hall of Fame last month, is sixth in program history with 1,246 career points.