VESTAL, N.Y. – Binghamton women's basketball (10-5, 2-0 AEC) took down defending America East champion Vermont (13-5, 2-1 AEC) in an electrifying 71-67 victory at the Events Center. The Bearcats improve to 6-1 at home and have won seven of their last nine matchups.

Bella Pucci led the team in scoring with 20 points and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. Yanniah Boyd came off the bench and tallied 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Kendall Bennett provided a huge defensive game for the Bearcats with 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.

"I think we've been in these games so many times that we didn't get rattled," head coach Mary Grimes stated. "We really started focusing on the little details and once we got settled with who we needed in the game, our defense got a lot better and made the difference for us."

The Bearcats, who have found themselves off to a slow start in their past few games, brought the energy to Vermont with aggressive full-court defense, causing five turnovers for the Catamounts and holding them to just 11 points. Boyd, coming off the bench, attacked the rim effortlessly and had six of Binghamton's 15 points in the first quarter.

After a defensive battle in the first quarter, the offensive side came to life in the second quarter, with both teams shooting over 60% from the field. The Catamounts outscored the Bearcats 22-19, but it would be Binghamton going into the half with a 34-33 lead.

The reigning conference champs took control in the third quarter. Maila Lenz and Nikola Priede led the offensive attack for the Catamounts with 15 of Vermont's 21 points in the third quarter, going up 54-47 after 30 minutes of play.

Despite being in foul trouble, the Bearcats continued to play a forceful defensive front, causing Vermont trouble offensively, keeping the Bearcats within two scoring possessions.
Binghamton attacked the rim and were able to put themselves at the free-throw line, where they went 8-for-8 at the line in the final quarter of the game. Vermont missed its only two attempts.

With 2:25 remaining on the clock, Boyd continued to drive into the open lane to make the layup to cut into Vermont's lead 65-62. After two free throws from K. Bennett, the score was tied at 65 with 1:47 left to play.

Priede saw her layup go in after receiving a floating pass from former Bearcat Jadyn Weltz, putting UVM ahead 67-65. However, on the other side of the floor was K. Bennett with an answer of her own, with a nice layup under the basket to tie the game once again, this time at 67 with a minute to go.

Weltz came down the lane, looking for the go-ahead bucket to seal the deal, but K. Bennett came in clutch with a huge block on her former teammate, keeping the game tied with 30 seconds left to play.

After another miss by the Catamounts, the Bearcats went down the floor and put the ball in Boyd's hands and with another hard drive to the rim, found her the bucket for her season high 16th point to put Binghamton ahead 67-65 with eight seconds left to play.

"Yanniah stepped up huge for us today," coach Grimes said. "Coming off the bench for the first time, she stayed very composed and poised and was able to be very effective."

Coming out of Vermont's timeout, Pucci drew a  game-clinching charge that saw her head to line to sink her 19th and 20th points of the game and seal the deal over the defending champs 71-67.

A quick turnaround for the Bearcats as the team heads back on the road to take on UMass Lowell (6-10, 0-3 AEC) on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip-off