The American University women's basketball team closed out the 2012-13 regular season with a 69-52 victory over Lafayette on Senior Day. The Eagles locked up a top-four seed in the Patriot League Tournament with the win.

Three players scored in double-figures, led by Jen Dumiak with 16 points, shooting 5-for-7 from the floor and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Geleisa George added 15 and Alexis Dobbs tallied 13 with two three-pointers. Dobbs notched a team-high four rebounds with three steals while Dumiak registered six assists.

"I think it was important for us to come out and play well and continue to try to build up some momentum and confidence as we head into the conference tournament," said Head Coach Matt Corkery. "I felt like we executed pretty well offensively…Defensively, we did some good things…I think we've got some things that we could do better on the defensive end but overall it was a good performance for us." 

Neither team was able to score for the first few minutes before American (15-13, 8-6) tallied back-to-back triples to open the scoring. George came up with the steal and dished it to Arron Zimmerman for the first three-pointer and Dumiak knocked it away off the inbound and passed it off to Dobbs, who drilled in her first trey of the day for a 6-0 advantage at 17:25, forcing Lafayette to take an early timeout. The Eagles went up 10 on a drive from Dobbs and floater from Ari Booth with 5:49 left to play, and a triple from Sarah Kiely gave American a 26-14 lead. The Eagles continued to hold the 10-point advantage, heading into the intermission with a 30-20 lead.

American held a 45.8 to 42.9 edge in field goal percentage and went 3-for-9 from beyond the arc, compared to Lafayette's 25.0 percent shooting from three-point range. The Eagles forced 15 first half turnovers and recorded eight steals. 

Dumiak kicked off the scoring in the second half with her first three-pointer of the game after a steal from Dobbs. George sparked a 12-2 run for the Eagles, closed out by a three-point play from Abigail Fogg. Dobbs completed a three-point play to give American a 21-point advantage and the Eagles took its largest lead of the day, 50-27, on a drive from Micaela Sancisi with 13:14 to play.

Lafayette (11-18, 4-10) answered with a 14-2 run to make it an 11-point contest with 6:06 remaining and cut it to single digits on a bucket from Danielle Fiacco. Dobbs hit a three to put American's advantage at 61-47 with 1:41 to play but Jamie O'Hare answered with a triple on the other end. The Eagles closed out the game on an 8-2 run for the 69-52 final score.

O'Hare led the Leopards with 13 points while Fiacco and Emily Homan chipped in 12 apiece. Fiacco grabbed a game-high eight rebounds with four blocks while Kristan Liddle recorded seven assists.

American outshot Lafayette 48.9 to 41.7 percent from the field and 42.9 to 30.8 percent from beyond the arc. The Eagles also shot 89.5 percent from the charity stripe, going a perfect 12-for-12 from the line in the second half. 

With the win, American has secured either the No. 3 or 4 seed in the 2013 Patriot League Tournament. Holy Cross is tied with the Eagles at 8-6, and the tiebreaker will be determined by RPI, which be released by the NCAA on Monday.

The Eagles will host the quarterfinal round of the 2013 Patriot League Tournament this Thursday, March 7 in Bender Arena at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now via AUeagles.com, and can be purchased by clicking here. Tickets prices, set by the Patriot League, are $6 for adults and $3 for youth and seniors.