The American University women's basketball team faced as much as a 10-point first-half deficit, but closed the game with a 14-4 run to cap a 50-point second half in Saturday's 73-62 victory at Holy Cross. Liz Leer led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds, good for her fifth double-double of the season.

In addition to Leer's strong performance, the win will go down in program history as both Leer and Nicole Ryan reached milestones in the game involving the number 200. For Leer, she registered her program-record 200th career block during the first half. And on AU's opening possession of the second half, a Ryan three-pointer was her 200th made trey of her career, which is also the most in school history and eighth-most in the Patriot League record books.

Saturday's victory over Holy Cross (9-18, 5-7 Patriot League), however, was not easy for American (19-7, 9-3 PL) as the Crusaders held a 24-14 lead late in the first half. Holy Cross took a 32-23 advantage into halftime after holding the Eagles to 31 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

But American came out firing in the second half with Ryan's record-setting three and a Leer bucket to trim the deficit to four, 32-28. Another trifecta from Ryan moments later followed by an Ebony Edwards layup cut Crusader advantage to one, 34-33, at the 17-minute mark.

Sarah Kiely's bucket off a Leer feed tied the score at 36 and back-to-back Leer baskets gave AU a 40-39 advantage, the Eagles' first lead since 13-11 midway through the opening half. Lisa Strack and Alexis Dobbs then both added threes and they were followed by consectuve backets by Leer to cap a 10-1 Eagles' spurt, opening up a 50-42 advantage with 8:56 to go. At that point, AU had outscored Holy Cross by a 27-10 margin to open the second half.

But the Crusaders fought back with a 9-3 run of its own to trim AU's margin to two. Holy Cross eventually got within one, 59-58, with 3:35 to play, before an offensive spurt by Edwards once again gave the Eagles the upper hand. She began the stretch with a key three-point play and fired back with a three from beyond-the-arc to push AU's lead back to six, 65-59. Leer followed with a bucket and then a Strack free throw ended a 9-1 scoring stretch for the Eagles.

American knocked down 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute to finalize a 73-62 victory. In total, the Eagles scored 14 of the game's final 18 points in the last 3:25 after they held the 59-58 advantage.

AU shot an event 50 percent from the field and 81.8 percent (18-22) from the foul line in the second half. The Eagles outscored Holy Cross by a 50-30 margin over these final 20 minutes as they committed only two second-half turnovers while dishing out 11 assists. 

"Today we showed our toughness and resilience by overcoming a tough start to the game and rebounding with a quality second half," said Head Coach Matt Corkery, who improves his career record to 60-29 in three seasons at American. "We worked to get better shots as the game progressed and played with a lot of energy and determination.  It's a win we can build upon heading into the last week of conference play."

Leer's 25-point, 10-rebound effort, which came on 9-of-14 shooting and 7-of-8 from the free throw line, was her fifth double-double of the season. She has reached nine rebounds while scoring in double figures on three other occasions this season. With her 25 points, she moved from sixth to fifth in program history in career scoring with 1,310 points. Her 10 boards also put her over the 700 career rebound mark, only the third Eagle to ever accomplish that feat.

Strack was also in double figures with 11 points while dishing out six assists. Additionally, Edwards scored 10 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half, while Stephanie Anya grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

AU improves to 19-7 this season, which is tied for the third-best start through 26 games in program history. The 19 victories mark the fifth-most single-season wins in school history with two regular season games and the conference tournament still to be played. With today's win, the Eagles have clinched a home quarterfinal game (a top-four seed) for the Patriot League Tournament.

Additionally, coupled with Navy's loss to Army on Saturday, the Eagles moved into first-place alone in the Patriot League with their 9-3 record. AU has now gained three games on the Midshipmen (8-4) in the past four contests heading into their showdown in Annapolis this Wednesday, February 23. Tip time on Wednesday is scheduled for 7 p.m.