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Junior point guard Andrea Holmes scored a game-high 19 points, leading Binghamton to a 66-53 victory over Rider in a non-conference women’s basketball game on Nov. 20 at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J. With the victory, the Bearcats climbed above the .500 mark for the first time since March 11, 2006.

Freshman guard Jasbriell Swain added 16 points and nine rebounds, just missing her third consecutive double-double. Junior forward Viive Rebane added 12 points.

Binghamton (2-1) jumped out to a 18-2 lead in the opening 9:36 of the game. Rebane rattled off eight of her points during that run. The lead got as high as 32-12 with 2:02 left before the half before Rider (0-3) closed to 32-20 at the break.

The Broncs got to within 35-25 in the opening 1:36 of the second half. By the time there was three minutes to go, however, Binghamton got the lead back up to 62-42. The Broncs used pressure defense the final three minutes, but could only get to within 11 points (62-51).

“That was the first time this year we’ve seen pressure like that down the stretch so I think it was good for our team to see it and learn how to handle it,” head coach Nicole Scholl said. “We’ve seen three teams now that have thrown three very different looks at us.”

Swain also finished with a game-high five steals. Sophomore forward Kara Elofson had nine points, seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Junior guard Orla O’Reilly scored seven points and added four rebounds, five assists and four steals.