Bryant women lose to Binghamton in the women's America East quarterfinals; here's what happened
SMITHFIELD — This strong debut season for Lynne-Ann Kokoski at her alma mater finished on a sour note.
Bryant was tripped out of the America East women’s basketball quarterfinals on Friday night by a team it had already defeated twice during the regular season. Binghamton finally found the winning combination at the ideal time.
Jadyn Weltz nailed the killer 3-pointer inside the final minute and followed with some clutch free throws. The Bearcats bent but didn’t break in a 56-51 triumph at Chace Athletic Center, eliminating the Bulldogs from the tournament on their home floor.
“We just haven’t been there yet,” Kokoski said. “I keep telling them to believe. In March there’s a whole different intensity out there.”
Bryant was running uphill after surrendering the lead in the second quarter and finally hit the wall deep in the fourth. The Bulldogs committed a turnover out of a timeout with 1:12 to play and Weltz stuck in the dagger with the shot clock nearly empty. She stepped behind a ball screen and drilled a deep jumper from the right wing that made it a 50-45 game with 42.7 seconds left.
“I was just focused on our kids continuing to get stops,” Binghamton coach Bethann Shapiro Ord said. “We were locked in. I thought we did a tremendous job being locked in on defense.”
Kendall Bennett’s blocked shot and an ensuing jump ball gave possession back to Binghamton with 39.2 seconds left. Weltz calmly knocked down two sets of free throws to keep Bryant from cutting into its deficit. A pair of late 3-pointers from Silvia Gonzalez weren’t enough to save the Bulldogs on a night where they committed 18 turnovers and shot just 37.0%.
“They were not scared,” Bryant forward Mariona Planes Fortuny said. “They played hard. I think we didn’t know how to adjust at the beginning, and we did it a little too late.”
Bryant held a 14-13 lead after one quarter before going into an offensive deep freeze. The Bulldogs went 9:30 without a field goal and saw the Bearcats build a double-digit lead. Planes Fortuny scored from the left block with 1:41 to play and Bryant was somewhat fortunate to trail only by a 27-20 count at the break.
“We knew personnel,” Binghamton wing Camryn Fauria said. “We knew who we needed to slow down. I think it was a mentality of coming into this game aggressive and wanting to win.”
The Bulldogs tied the game twice in the fourth quarter on field goals inside by Planes Fortuny. Denai Bowman’s jumper from the right baseline with 3:52 left snapped the second deadlock and gave Binghamton (14-16) the lead back for good. She finished with a game-high 24 points while Fauria added 13.
“I get a lot of my energy from the defensive end,” Bowman said. “I had that coming into this game.”
Gonzalez led three in double figures for Bryant (15-15) with 12 points. Planes Fortuny added 11 and Nia Scott came up just shy of a double-double with 11 points and eight rebounds. The Bulldogs dropped their final two games after winning five of their previous six, and they were weakened in the rotation — Planes Fortuny played through a left foot injury while conference Rookie of the Year Mia Mancini suited up with the flu.
“I did think, truly, if we got the lead, we could have carried it,” Kokoski said. “That’s exactly what happened in our last game against them here.”
Bryant improved by six wins overall from the 2022-23 season and finished .500 in league play for the first time since going 9-9 in the Northeast Conference in 2018-19. The Bulldogs had a pair of victories over the Bearcats in their pocket entering this one so there was reasonable optimism to make a bit of a run in the bracket. Bryant closes with Planes Fortuny weighing a return for a graduate year, Mancini and Scott leading a strong first-year group and Kokoski ready to tackle a first full offseason of recruiting and roster shaping.
“We had high expectations for ourselves,” Scott said. “We’ve already made so much history. We’re going to keep building on that.”
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant women lose in America East quarterfinal to Binghamton
