WASHINGTON – Senior guard Ari Booth scored a career-high 21 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, to lift the American University women's basketball team to a 64-56 victory over Colgate Saturday afternoon at Bender Arena.

"I haven't been hitting shots, so it felt good to see the ball go in," said Booth. "I just wanted to win the game. I didn't want us to lose at all. My teammates really had my back today and rallied behind me, giving me momentum.

"My three-pointer has been a little off lately, so I needed to score in a different way. I needed to be aggressive for my team."

Junior Lauren Crisler, who was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field, added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Eagles, while freshman Cecily Carl pitched in 10 points.

For the Raiders, Josie Stockill led four players in double figures, scoring a game-high 19 points.

Colgate (4-15, 2-7) scored the first basket of the contest, but American responded with a 9-0 run, as the Raiders committed six turnovers in the first five minutes of action. However, Colgate outscored AU 10-5 over the remainder of the period to cut the Eagles' lead to 14-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Both teams struggled offensively in the second quarter, combining for 11 turnovers and shooting just 25 percent from the field, as the Eagles went into the locker room with a 22-17 advantage.

American (5-15, 3-6) pushed ahead to a 30-20 lead with over eight minutes remaining in the third period, but the Raiders scored 10 straight points to tie the game before taking a 33-32 lead with 2:41 on the clock. A three-pointer by sophomore Kate Bond put the Eagles back on top, and after trading baskets, American held on to a 38-37 lead heading into the final stanza.

The Raiders pulled ahead early in the fourth quarter and took a 45-42 lead, their largest of the game, with 5:56 to play. Meanwhile, the Eagles responded with eight straight points to regain the advantage for good.

Colgate was able to cut the margin to 54-53 with a minute and a half remaining, but Booth hit a big shot to push American's lead back to three. The Eagles iced the game at the free throw line, knocking down 8-of-8 foul shots in the final 40 seconds.

"It was really important for us to play to win," said American head coach Megan Gebbia. "The last few games, I felt we played not to lose. We were careful with the basketball, and when you're too careful, sometimes it leads to turnovers. What we didn't have at the end today was turnovers."

American forced Colgate into 20 turnovers, the most by an AU opponent this season, turning those turnovers into 24 points.

"I think our biggest change (since our last game against Colgate) has been to be more aggressive defensively," said Gebbia. "We decided in the past couple days that we were going to pressure a little more, play more denial and we ended up forcing 20 turnovers.

"We need to be able to score more points, and if we can turn those turnovers into points, that's a lot more scoring."

The Eagles are back on the road for their next game, visiting Bucknell on Wednesday, Feb. 2, for a 7 p.m. contest.