The American University women's basketball team captured its 10th consecutive victory on Wednesday night, but it was far from easy as the Eagles had to go to overtime to escape with a 60-55 triumph over Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa.

Lisa Strack led the Eagles with 15 points while Liz Leer registered her fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds for American (12-4, 2-0 Patriot League). Leer's output came on only seven shot attempts, and with her 14 points, she moves into seventh on AU's all-time scoring list with 1,182 career points.

After Bucknell (3-11, 0-2 PL) held a 28-27 halftime lead, Strack and Leer both came up big for American in a second half where neither team held more than a three-point lead. With the Bison clinging to a 47-44 advantage, a Leer three-pointer knotted the score at 47 at the 4:28 mark to begin the back-and-forth action that would play out at the end of regulation.

Strack followed with a hard drive to the bucket to give the Eagles a 49-47 advantage before Bucknell's Joyce Novacek knocked down a jumper to tie the score at 49 with 1:46 to go. Strack fired back with an identical-looking drive to regain AU's two-point margin before BU's Cosima Higham tied the score at 51 with 1:04 remaining.

Both teams had their chances in the final minute of regulation, but neither side could find a bucket. Strack had a game-winning opportunity for American as time expired, but her tough runner in the lane came up just short.

The Eagles, however, took control of the overtime session right from the start with a beautifully-executed tip play from Stephanie Anya to Leer to Strack for the easy layup. After Bucknell tied the game at 53 midway through the five-minute period, the Eagles won the game at the free throw line in the final 1:40, converting 7-of-8 attempts. Leer began the run with a pair and was followed by two from Strack to give AU a 57-53 lead with 46 seconds left.

Facing a four-point deficit, the Bison had to settle for a difficult shot in traffic thanks to the defense of Anya. She then collected the rebound, fed the ball to Alexis Dobbs, who knocked down two more free throws to extend the margin to six, 59-53, with 14 seconds left and virtually ice the game. After a Bucknell bucket, Dobbs added one more free throw in the final 10 seconds to set the final score at 60-55 in favor of the Eagles, marking their 20th straight when scoring at least 60 points.

"I think we learned a lot tonight about life on the road in the Patriot League," Head Coach Matt Corkery said. "Bucknell played really hard, physical, and did a nice of job of taking us out of what we like to do. But in the end, we stepped up and made some big plays in crucial times of the game, especially on the defensive end. We also did a nice job of getting to the foul line in overtime and knocking those down."

Bucknell held a strong advantage in field goal percentage in the game, shooting 45.1 percent compared to only 32.3 percent for AU. The Eagles undoubtedly won the game at the foul line, registering more conversions (14) than Bucknell had attempts (8).

In addition to Strack's 15 points and Leer's 14, Nicole Ryan had nine for the Eagles on 3-of-6 from beyond-the-arc to give her 22 threes in her last eight games. Anya also grabbed eight rebounds for AU.

Felicia Mgbada led the Bison with 12 points and four steals. Patriot League leading scorer Shelby Romine had nine but finished the game with eight turnovers.

After completing a 5-0 trip away from home, the Eagles will return to Bender Arena for three of their next four games, beginning Saturday, January 15 against Colgate. Tip time is set for 2 p.m.