Game 16  ·  American (6-9, 2-3 PL) at Holy Cross (10-6, 3-2 PL)
Saturday, Jan. 11  ·  1 p.m.  ·  Worcester, Mass. (Hart Center)
All-Time Record: Holy Cross leads, 22-19

WASHINGTON - The American University women's basketball team (6-9, 2-3 PL) will look to get back in the win column on Saturday with a 1 p.m. tip at Holy Cross (10-6, 3-2 PL) on Saturday.

SERIES HISTORY

• Holy Cross is the only team in the Patriot League to lead in its series against the Eagles, 22-19.
• American enters the game on a four-game win streak, including a 71-44 trouncing in Worcester at the end of the 2018-19 season.
• The Crusaders lead on their home court, 12-7, while AU leads on its home floor, 12-10.
• The last loss for the Eagles against Holy Cross came out of Worcester on Feb. 18, 2017, with a 51-46 final.

THE STARTING FIVE

• American will look to bounce back after a tough pair of losses to the two top teams in the Patriot League. The Eagles dropped in a tight one-point contest to Lehigh on Saturday, and struggled offensively in Lewisburg on Wednesday with a 68-43 loss at Bucknell.
• Junior Indeya Sanders opened the tough three-game series just outside of a triple-double against Lehigh, scoring a season-high 16 points alongside her season-high 10 boards and seven assists. She also added four steals and gave up only two turnovers in her full 40 minutes of play.
• Senior Kaitlyn Marenyi continues to step up and lead the team in conference season, averaging a team-high 13.8 ppg over the last five games, including a team-high 16 points at Bucknell on Wednesday.
• Although American enters Saturday's matinee on a four-game win streak against the Crusaders, Holy Cross remains the only team to lead the series against the Eagles, 22-19.
• Sophomore Jade Edwards continues to lead the team's overall scoring efforts, despite being held to single-digits in back-to-back games for the first time this season against Boston University and Army. She is averaging 15.1 ppg and 5.9 rpg in her 14 games.

THE LAST TIME OUT

• AU couldn't find its footing offensively on Wednesday and fell to still-undefeated Bucknell, 68-43, in Lewisburg.
• The Eagles remain without a win on the Bison's home court since December 31, 2014 (60-55).
• Senior Kaitlyn Marenyi led the team with a 16-point effort - her sixth double-figure performance in the last seven games and fourth since the start of conference play.
• For the first time in her career, freshman Karla Vres paced the Eagles on the boards with a career-high seven boards alongside her team-high two blocks.
• Sophomore Laura Graytok was the only Eagle to put in significant minutes without a single turnover - she played 23 and pitched in three points, one assist, one steal, one block, and helped lead in rebounding with five.
• American closed shooting only 34.9 percent from the field with nearly a season-low 43 shot attempts (41 vs. High Point). The Eagles also went 33.3 percent from three with a season-low 15 attempts from the perimeter.
• American entered the game averaging 14.8 turnovers per game and nearly tied its season-high with 20 after giving up 11 in the first half alone.
• The Eagles picked up the pace as the game went on, cutting down the nine- and ten-point deficits from the first two quarters to trail Bucknell by only four and two in the second and third stanzas.
• Both Marenyi and sophomore Maddie Doring picked up the pace in the final 10 minutes. Marenyi scored six of her 16 points while Doring added seven of her 10. 

#AUWBB vs. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE

• American holds a 242-123 overall record (.663) against Patriot League teams, and is 193-92 (.677) since joining the league in 2001-02.
• The Eagles have been one of the powerhouses in the Patriot League over the past two seasons, accumulating a record of 34-4 during the regular season with losses to only Bucknell (4) and Navy until BU and Lehigh on Jan. 5 and 11.

KEEP IT CLEAN

• American is second in the PL behind Lehigh, and 13th in Division I for fewest personal fouls per game, averaging only 13.7 and allowing opponents only 11.4 free throw attempts per game.
• Ohio and Boston University appeared on the line more than any AU opponent so far this season with 18 free throw attempts while Villanova (9), Saint Joseph's (5), Bucknell (5), and George Washington (2) were all held to under 10. 

FIRST ONE TO 60...

• Since Head Coach Megan Gebbia took the reins in 2013-14, the Eagles have put up an 97-32 record when scoring over 60 points, and 44-2 when scoring over 70.  
• Included in that run is a staggering 46-7 record since the 2017-18 season.
• On the flip side of that, AU is 24-70 when its opponents score over 60 points.
• In Gebbia's tenure, AU has allowed its opponents to score over 60 points only 94 times while the Eagles have crossed that threshold 129 times.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

• Senior Kaitlyn Marenyi has stepped up to lead the Eagles since the start of conference play, averaging a team-high 13.8 ppg with only Boston U. successfully keeping her to below double-figures.
• The momentum began to build at Radford, though, when she posted her first of three consecutive 16-point performances. Over the last seven games, Marenyi has averaged 14.4 ppg.
• She hit a career-high 5 of 7 from the perimeter against Colgate.
• She led with a season-high 19 points during the win over Army after being held to only four at BU.
• Boston U. and High Point have been the only two teams this season to hold her to 0 made three's.
• Her career .376 (89-237) shooting from long-range ranks fourth in the AU record books after she broke the single-season record last year with 46.4 percent (32-69).
• Marenyi was selected by her teammates as the lone captain for the 2019-20 season.

BEST IN CLASS

• While maintaining her on-court responsibilities, senior Kaitlyn Marenyi is also juggling a unique set of responsibilities off-court as a student teacher at a local elementary school.

HOW ABOUT THOSE HANDS

• Coming in at only 5'6", junior Indeya Sanders is not the player you'd expect to rank among the best in the PL for blocks (0.9 per game). She ranked within the top three until this week after failing to get one in the last three games against Army, Lehigh, and Bucknell.
• She has 14 total on the season, including a career-high three against Villanova.
• Arguably the best all-around player for the Eagles, Sanders leads the team in assists (4.7), steals (2.0), blocks (0.9), is second behind Edwards in rebounding (5.7) and third in scoring (7.7).
• She has one of the best performances of her career against Lehigh, leading the team in four categories with 16 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, and four steals while giving up only two turnovers in her full 40 minute.
• Lehigh was her first double-double of the season, second in her career, and was just shy of the program's first recorded triple-double.
• This was the second game that Sanders led the team in P-R-A in her career - the last was against Bucknell on March 2, 2019 (15-6-4).

EDWARDS COMING ON STRONG

• Sophomore Jade Edwards has had one of the best starts in a decade for the Eagles, averaging 15.1 ppg after 14 games. She is third in the last 10 years behind Jen Dumiak (2014-15, 17.3 ppg) and Michelle Kirk (2009-10, 19.9 ppg) at this point in the season.
• She has consistently sat within the top-3 of the PL rankings for scoring all season, including leading for two long stretches. She currently sits in third after being held to a season-low 7 points against both Boston and Army.
• Edwards has averaged only 11.8 ppg since the start of conference play after averaging 16.5 ppg during nonconference.
• Radford (7), George Washington (8), Boston U. (6), and Army (7) are the only teams that held her to under 10 field goal attempts.
• Edward's scored 20+ points on five occasions this season, including back-to-back career-highs with 24 points against Villanova (11/14) and High Point (11/18).

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Sophomore Laura Graytok has started playing some key minutes for the Eagles in the conference season, adding much-needed energy and aggressiveness on the court during the losses to both Boston University and Bucknell.
• She had a career performance during AU's loss at BU, as she led the team for the first time in her career with a career-high 12 points.
• She shot a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range in the final 1:50 to single-handedly deliver AU's only winning quarter of the game (13-10) and earn her first career start against Army on January 8.
• Graytok entered the game with a career-high six points from the win over Colgate on Jan. 2. She only hit one three so far this season - during the win over George Washington on Dec. 22.
• She was back at it against Bucknell on Wednesday, putting in 23 minutes without a single turnover while contributing across the board with five rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block, and three points. 
• That was just the second time in her career that she contributed in every statistical category along with the win over Army where she put in 25 minutes without a turnover.

SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS

• Holy Cross was one of three undefeated teams in the Patriot League before a 51-40 loss to Bucknell ended what had grown to be a four-game win streak.
• The Crusaders are coming off a second consecutive loss, this time to Army West Point on Wednesday, 61-48.
• Holy Cross has had their lowest shooting percentage of the season over the last two games, hitting only 27.6 percent (16-58) from the field against the Bison and 29.7 percent (19-64) against the Black Knights.
• Holy Cross also shot their lowest percentage from three at Army with 14.3 percent (3-21).
• The Crusaders were led by a double-double effort from Megan Swords, who put up 14 points and 11 rebounds alongside her five steals at West Point. Avery LaBarbera added another 11 points and five assists.
• Preseason Player of the Year Lauren Manis leads the team and is one of only two players in the Patriot League to average a double-double with a league-high 17.4 ppg and 11.5 rpg (second in the PL). She is sixth in Division I for double-doubles (10), sixth in rebounds (11.5), and fourth in defensive rebounds (8.9).
• Manis has dropped off a bit since the start of conference play, though, but still averages a double-double with 13.4 ppg and 11.0 rpg.
• Avery LaBarbera also averages in double-figures with 13.5 ppg, followed by Megan Swords with 12.1 ppg. Swords ranks second in the PL with her .556 field goal percentage while Manis leads from the perimeter with .500.
• The Crusaders led Division I for three-point percentage up until this week when they dropped to sixth (.394). They trail only Colgate in points per game (67.0), lead the PL in rebounding (41.4), and rank third in field goal percentage (.408) and assists (14.0).

NEXT UP...
The Eagles will return to Bender Arena at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22, to face Loyola Maryland for the team's annual Field Trip Day.

For the latest on American University Women's Basketball, stay tuned to AUEagles.com and follow the team on Twitter (@AU_WBasketball) and Instagram (@auwbasketball).