STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook women's basketball team is headed to the third America East title game in program history.
The top-seeded Seawolves punched their ticket to the championship game with a 57-42 victory against fourth-seeded Binghamton on Sunday afternoon at Island Federal Arena.
Bidding for its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, Stony Brook will host second-seeded Maine on Friday at 5 p.m.
The Seawolves (28-3) previously reached the America East finals in 2002 and 2014.
"I'm just really proud of our team today," coach
Caroline McCombs said. "Holding a team to 42 points is a great defensive effort. That's who we are. We really were locked in today to what we needed to do defensively."
After Binghamton clawed within 27-23 midway through the third quarter,
India Pagan and
Anastasia Warren hit consecutive jump shots and Pagan sank two free throws to open a 10-point advantage.
Warren led the Seawolves with 18 points and also contributed six rebounds. Pagan, in her first game back since a three-game injury absence, had 14 points.
Kaela Hilaire had 11 points and nine rebounds.
Pagan logged 25 minutes off the bench.
Asked if she is 100 percent, Pagan said: "I'm ready for any game. It's the end of the season. I'm going to give all I have, everything that's in the tank."
Meanwhile, with
Hailey Zeise primarily guarding her, America East Player of the Year Kai Moon was limited to 11 points.
As for the title-game opponent, Maine had ended Stony Brook's 22-game winning streak on Feb. 23 with an overtime victory in Bangor. Stony Brook earned a four-point win on Jan. 5 at Island Federal Arena.
"There's no doubt our team will be ready on Friday," McCombs said. "Through every season you have some adversity. So we faced that. Losing sometimes is the best way to, unfortunately, really dig in and look at some things that need to be improved. We got an opportunity to feel that, which looking back was important, as much as you never want to lose a game. We had some good talks and some real conversations that I think have helped to propel us and push us forward."
