The American University women's basketball team rolled to its second straight exhibition win, downing Messiah, 77-40, on Wednesday night in Bender Arena.

American had three players reach double-figures for the second straight night with Alexis Dobbs posting a team-high 16 and adding seven offensive boards. Jordan Light finished with 11 points and two blocks while Michelle Holmes tallied 10 points and six rebounds. Abigail Fogg and Lauren Crisler led the Eagles with nine and eight rebounds, respectively. American dominated the boards, recording 27 offensive rebounds and outrebounding Messiah 54 to 33 for the game. The Eagles shot 34.7 percent from the floor and 41.2 percent from beyond the arc.

"I thought we did a pretty good job, we had open shots and we just didn't hit them in the first half," said Head Coach Megan Gebbia. "But in the second half we had easy baskets and it kind of just opened up from there."

American went up 12-5 capped off by triples from Ti'Asia McGeorge and Dobbs on each end of a 10-2 run. The Falcons answered with six straight points and tied it up at 16-all on a triple from Chelsea Danel with 11:39 to go in the first half. Shaquilla Curtis had the response for the Eagles, knocking it away and draining her first three of the contest to give American back the lead.

Messiah took the lead on a jumper by Dominique Seamon but Sarah Kiely added a bucket and Light hit a trey to give the Eagles the 30-26 advantage with 2:22 left to play in the half. Gillian Glackin hit a pair of free throws at the 1:25 mark to cut American's advantage to 30-28 at the break.

The Eagles came out of the intermission and would not let up, opening the second half on a 23-2 run for a commanding 53-30 advantage as Dobbs drove baseline and earned the foul, converting the free throw for the final play of the run at the 12:11 mark. American's defense stepped up to hold the Falcons without a bucket until the 11:35 mark of the second half, with Seamon ending the drought with a pull-up jumper.

The Eagles rolled again after the Messiah basket, answering the score with a 17-0 run for the 70-32 lead with 4:41 remaining in the game. Taylor Miller hit a three-pointer to put the Falcons back on the board and Messiah converted 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch. McGeorge added a triple and Crisler laid one in to close out the scoring for American for the 77-40 final score.

Danel led the Falcons with 12 points and Hannah Nichols had a team-best seven rebounds and two blocks. Messiah shot 26.8 percent from the field in the game, going just 2-for-22 in the second half, and went 5-for-17 from three-point range for the game.

American kicks off the regular season with back-to-back games in Bender Arena, facing UMES on Tuesday, November 12 at 7 p.m. in its home opener. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by clicking here. The game will be broadcast live on Eagles Vision TV.