Alexis Dobbs knocked down six three-pointers en route to a career-high 21 points and Jen Dumiak added 18 as the American University women's basketball team rolled to a 67-50 victory at second-place Lehigh on Wednesday night in Bethlehem, Pa. AU improves to a perfect 9-0 in conference play, its best league start in school history and the best in the Patriot League since Holy Cross began 10-0 in the 2004-05 season.

American (17-6, 9-0 PL) handed Lehigh (13-10, 6-3 PL) its worst home conference loss since an 84-67 defeat at the hands of Holy Cross back in 2000. Additionally, AU's 17-point win marks the Mountain Hawks' worst defeat to a conference foe since a 64-37 setback at Bucknell on January 24, 2007.

The win moves the Eagles to a full three games clear of second-place Lehigh, Army, and Navy in the conference standings with five contests to play. AU holds the tiebreaker with the Mountain Hawks as a result of the season sweep and has one more meeting left with both Army and Navy. The Eagles are seeking their fourth Patriot League regular season title in the last five seasons.

Dumiak was the story for American in the first half, scoring 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 14 minutes off the bench. With the score tied at seven, a pair of Dumiak threes pushed AU's lead to 14-7 at the 10:28 mark. American opened up a nine-point advantage, 18-9, on another Dumiak jumper, but the Mountain Hawks used an 8-2 run late in the half to draw within five, 24-19, at halftime.

The Eagles took control of the game in the opening moments of the second half as they began with back-to-back jumpers by Sarah Kiely. A Dobbs three -- her first of five in the second half -- gave AU its first double-digit lead of the game, 31-21 with 17:57 to play.

AU put the game away with a 15-2 run over a 5:42 span midway through the period to take a 50-25 lead with 9:52 to go. American was 6-for-11 during the spurt with five steals. Dobbs began the spurt with a trey and then Lisa Strack followed with a three of her own. After buckets by Tori Halvorsen, Strack, and Dumiak, the scoring spurt was punctuated by a Geleisa George steal and layup to take the 25-point advantage.

AU took a much as a 27-point lead -- 63-36 with 3:59 to go -- before settling for the 17-point road win.

Dobbs' 21 points, which came on 7-of-13 from the field, set a new career-best. Her six made threes were a personal-high and she added three rebounds and three steals. Dumiak's 18 points came on 8-of-15 shooting along with three boards, three assists, and three steals.

Additionally, Ebony Edwards registered a career-high seven steals, the ninth-most in a single game in program history. Strack also tallied six assists along with eight points.

The Eagles recorded a season-high 20 steals, which is tied for the eighth-most in a single game in program history. AU forced 26 total Lehigh turnovers.

AU shot 41.7 percent from the field for the game, including a 9-for-22 clip (40.9 percent) from deep. After struggling at 30 percent shooting in the first half, AU improved to 53.3 percent over the final 20 minutes. The Mountain Hawks, meanwhile, registered a 36.6 percent shooting percentage as they were led by Alexa Williams' 16 points.

"I thought our defense was key all night in pressuring Lehigh," remarked Head Coach Matt Corkery, who improves to 41-10 in Patriot League regular season games in his four-year tenure at the helm. "We found our range in the second half and knocked down some open looks. But it all starts with our effort on the defensive end of the floor, which was there for us tonight."

The Eagles will look to make it 10-0 in league play when they host Holy Cross this Saturday, February 11 at 2 p.m. in Bender Arena.