YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Playing in its first-ever Division I national postseason game, Binghamton (20-11) won 70-59 at Youngstown State (16-16) in the opening round of the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) on Wednesday night at Beeghly Center. With the victory, the Bearcats will host Yale in a second-round matchup on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs won their first-round game at Northeastern, 68-58, on Thursday evening.
It was a historic win for the Bearcats in more ways than one. Binghamton now has 20 wins for the first time since the 2000-01 season, the year before it moved up to the NCAA Division I level. Since then, Binghamton has won 19 games twice (2001-02 and 2010-11).
Senior guard
Imani Watkins led all scorers with 27 points, marking the 45th time during her illustrious career that she has reached the 20-point mark. The current America East Player of the Year now has 2,102 points for her career – which remains first in program history and No. 10 in conference history.
Senior center
Alyssa James finished with 18 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and a pair of steals. Redshirt junior
Jasmine Sina added 10 points and a team-best six assists.
Binghamton was down 19-8 through one period but roared back to take a 34-33 lead with 1:14 left before halftime. Watkins punctuated the run with a three-point play.
Youngstown State reclaimed the lead when Nikki Arbanas drained a three pointer at the buzzer of the second period.
The lead swung back and forth during the third period with the Penguins taking a 47-45 lead on a jumper by Anne Secrest with 2:28 left to go. Watkins, however, responded by hitting back-to-back three-point field goals as Binghamton took the lead for good.
Nursing a 55-52 lead, Binghamton got back-to-back three-point field goals by Sina and sophomore guard
Kai Moon to open up a 61-52 lead with 6:22 left in regulation.
From there, Binghamton maintained at least a seven-point lead the rest of the way.
Arbanas led Youngstown State with 16 points while Sarah Cash finished with 13 points.
Junior forward
Rebecca Carmody added eight points, four rebounds, two assists, a block and three steals. Moon also finished with three steals.
Binghamton shot 48.3 percent for the game (29-60) and was 6-of-14 from three-point range (42.9 percent). The Bearcats dished out 15 assists and committed a season-low seven turnovers.
As a team, the Bearcats also blocked six shots and recorded 12 steals. The Bearcats entered the game ranked fourth in the nation with 6.0 blocks per game.
NOTES: James now has 1,091 career points and moves into 13th place all time in Binghamton program history. Against Youngstown State, she surpassed Laura Sario, who scored 1,088 points from 2004-08 … for her career, James has 267 blocks which remains both the Binghamton and America East all-time records ... with the victory, the Bearcats are now 15-1 this season when holding opponents to under 60 points ... Watkins is now just six points away from tying Sheri Turnbull of Vermont for ninth place all-time in America East history with 2,108 career points ... Binghamton was a NCAA Division II program during the 2000-01 season. It finished 22-7 and won the season-ending ECAC Tournament ... the Bearcats are now 11-4 in road games this season ... with the victory, the Bearcats have now rallied from a double-digit deficit three times this season to win a game. Against Youngstown State, they were down by as many as 13 points (21-8 with 9:35 left in the second period).
