WASHINGTON - The American University women's basketball team (9-14, 5-8 PL) battled back from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter, but fell only three points shy of completing the comeback with a 60-57 loss to Bucknell (18-6, 11-2 PL) during the Eagles' Play4Kay game.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Senior Kaitlyn Marenyi put up her third +20-point game of the conference season, leading the team with 20 off 7 of 12 shooting from the field and 3 of 5 from three.
- Sophomore Maddie Doring was the only other Eagle to land in double-figures with a dozen in her fifth career start.
- Sophomore Jade Edwards closed just off a double-double for the second consecutive game with nine rebounds and nine points. Junior Indeya Sanders added a team-high five assists and four steals alongside her seven boards.
- The Eagles shot 37.7 percent (20-53) from the field, 31.6 percent (6-19) from three, and 84.6 percent (11-13) from the charity stripe.
- Bucknell's final box told a similar story, with Autumn Ceppi scoring a team-high 20 points followed by a dozen from Ellie Mack.Â
- The Bison outshot AU, though, hitting 44.6 percent (25-56) from the floor and 33.3 percent (4-12) from the perimeter.
- Both teams pulled down 32 rebounds and American held the edge in second chance points, 9-6. But Bucknell led in points in the paint, 34-25, and points of turnovers, 17-8, after capitalizing on AU's 12 miscues.
- Bucknell jumped to an early 5-0 lead before American found its footing offensively. Marenyi lit the fire for the Eagles, draining back-to-back baskets to cut the Bison's lead down to two.
- Doring tied the game at 9-9 after a solo 4-0 run midway through the quarter. The Eagles picked up as much a three-point lead after a couple quick baskets from Mareny, but by the end of the stanza Bucknell was back ahead at 18-14 after three unanswered baskets.
- The Eagles continued to hover around a two-point deficit until the midway mark of the second quarter when a 6-0 run from Edwards and Doring put AU back ahead by two at 24-22. That would be American's final lead of the game, though, as the Bison hit another closing run to enter the locker room with a 29-24 lead.
- AU battled to keep within reach in the early minutes of the third quarter, but a 4:00 scoring drought brought Bucknell up by 10 at the media break.
- Baskets from Marenyi and Edwards cut the Bison's lead down to single-digits on a few occasions in the final minutes of the stanza, but Bucknell still lead by nine heading into the final 10 minutes, 44-35.
- American battled back in a big way in the fourth quarter, outpacing the Bison 22-16 behind seven points Marenyi and six from Doring.Â
- A trey from Doring sparked an 8-2 AU run to bring the game back within three. The Eagles would struggle to break any closer, though, as Bucknell stretched back to a five-point lead on four different occasions in the final 5:00.Â
- With under 1:00, and trailing by only three points, America put the Bison on the line where they shot 3-for-6 down the stretch.Â
- A clutch three from Doring with 18 seconds on the clock brought American back within three at 60-57, and a pair of missed free throws from Bucknell's Abby Kapp gave AU the final possession of the game and a chance to send it into overtime.
- The Eagles worked the ball around the perimeter, finding Marenyi briefly before she a pair of Bucknell defenders forced her to feed the ball to Edwards at the top of the arc. Edwards got of a shot just before the buzzer sounded, but came up just short of sending AU into its third overtime of the season.
NEXT UP...
American will stay close to home on Wednesday with a trip to Navy for a 7 p.m. tip before returning home to host Boston University at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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).
