STONY BROOK, N.Y. – India Pagan scored a game-high 21 points, leading Stony Brook (14-2, 5-1 AE) to a 69-44 win over Binghamton (4-8, 0-2 AE) in an America East women's basketball game on Wednesday night at Island Federal Credit Union Arena. The contest was the first played by the Bearcats since Jan. 8 (due to COVID postponements) and the second game in a row in which they dressed only eight players.
Pagan shot 9-of-14 from the field, sank three of her four free throw attempts and grabbed five rebounds. She paced a Seawolf team that shot 41 percent for the game (27-70) and matched its conference-best scoring average (69.1 ppg.).
For the Bearcats, junior
Birna Benonysdottir finished with a team-high 18 points and added seven rebounds as well as a pair of blocks. She entered the game leading the America East with 16.5 points per night.
Junior guard
Denai Bowman finished with eight points to go along with six rebounds, six assists, a block and pair of steals. Junior forward
Clare Traeger, meanwhile, added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds. Traeger entered the game averaging a conference-best 8.5 rebounds per game.
Binghamton came out strong as Benonysdottir and Traeger hit back-to-back three points to put their team up 6-2. Over the rest of the first half, however, the Seawolves' depth took over and they went up 29-15 at the break.
The Bearcats regrouped in the third quarter, trimming the deficit to 35-27 on a jumper by Bowman with 6:41 left to go. From there, however, Stony Brook went on an 18-6 run to go up 53-33 with 39 seconds remaining.
In the fourth quarter, the Seawolves maintained at least a 16-point lead and closed the game out with the final six points.
Stony Brook finished with a 49-41 edge in rebounding as well as a 46-22 advantage in points in the paint.
Binghamton heads to NJIT on Saturday for a 3 p.m. game.
NOTES: Bowman entered the game ranked second in the America East with 4.1 assists per game. The six assists against the Seawolves marked her second-highest total of the season.
