STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Stony Brook women's basketball team used a big fourth quarter to surge past Binghamton, 68-53, on Wednesday night at the Island Federal Arena. In a game that saw nine lead changes and five ties, the Seawolves outscored the Bearcats by a 27-12 margin in the final quarter to secure the win on the team's annual Pink Night.
 
The senior G duo of Shania Johnson (Frederick, Md.) and Jerell Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) combined for 43 points to lead the squad to victory. Johnson also filled the stat sheet with nine assists, six steals and four rebounds.
 
Stony Brook now has sole possession of the fourth spot in the America East rankings with a conference record of 6-4.

McCOMBS REACTION
"I was really proud of our second-half effort after being down at halftime and having a strong third quarter. I just thought the way we defended and were able to score in the fourth quarter was something we haven't seen in a long time and just really I thought the end of the third quarter gave us a lot of confidence going into the fourth."
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Down by three in the final seconds of the third quarter, Johnson drained a shot from behind the arc to tie things up, 41-41, with just one more period to go.
• It was all Stony Brook in the fourth quarter, with the team going on a 14-0 run that would put them ahead for good.
• Matthews sparked the burst with a three and Johnson capped it off with four-straight free throws to take an 11-point lead, 55-43, forcing Binghamton to take a timeout.
• The Bearcats wouldn't be able to recover as the Seawolves added on three more triples to increase its advantage to 19 with just 1:44 left to play.
• Sophomore F India Pagan (New London, Conn.) kick-started the offense for the team in the first quarter, hitting the first two buckets of the night for the Seawolves.
• Binghamton jumped out to a 13-6 lead after scoring five unanswered, but Stony Brook hit back with its own 5-0 run to keep its deficit to just two points (11-13) after the first 10 minutes.
• The team's run extended into the second quarter to ultimately take its first lead of the night after Johnson and Pagan each found the basket.
• The Bearcats did respond with a three to retake the lead, but back-to-back long-range shots from Johnson and Matthews gave the Seawolves the lead once again.
• With halftime approaching, the home team saw itself down by five, but sophomore G Jonae Cox (Portsmouth, Va.) notched a steal and easy layup to set the score to 27-30 at the half.

 
NOTES

• Johnson is now No. 2 all-time in single-season assists (176), just four behind Jill Cook, who had 180 during the 1989-90 season.
• She was also a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line.
• Matthews is now sixth in program history in career 3-pointers (117) while her six triples on the evening are tied for the fifth-most in a single game in school history.
• Pagan's tally of 11 rebounds is a new career high while Cox's 11 points matched her career's best.
• With 31 blocks this year, redshirt sophomore F Oksana Gouchie-Provencher (Montreal, Canada) is just one block away from cracking into the top-10 in single-season blocks.
• After shooting percentages of 45.4 and 54.4 percent in the first two quarters, Binghamton shot just 29.4 and 21.4 percent in the final frames, including just one three-point field goal in the second half after splashing in six through the first 20 minutes.
• Stony Brook out-rebounded the Bearcats by a 41-27 margin.
• The Seawolves kept Binghamton below its season averages in points (60.9), rebounds (37.6) and field goal percentage (39.5).
• This was the first time since 2016 that Stony Brook has topped Binghamton at the Island Federal Arena.

UP NEXT
Stony Brook hits the road for UMass Lowell this weekend. Action at the Costello Athletic Center is set to begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9.