BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Junior Jade Edwards had a career performance with 31 points and 13 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to carry the American University women's basketball team as the Eagles fell to Lehigh on the road, 89-71.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Edwards smashed through her previous best with a 31-point performance, shooting 11-for-19 from the field, 1-for-5 from three, and 8-for-10 from the line. She also added a career-high 13 boards for the season's first double-double. The junior added a third career-high with a game-high five steals.
• Juniors Taylor Brown and Emily Fisher also landed in double-figures with 11 points and 10 points, respectively, while senior Indeya Sanders added eight points, six rebounds, and a team-high four assists.
• The Mountain Hawks tied their program record, and the Patriot League record (held by Navy since 2017) with 16 made three's on the day, accounting for 48 points in their 18-point victory. Lehigh shot 44.4 percent from the perimeter (16-36) while the Eagles were held to only 1 of 12. 
• The Eagles now fall to 0-2 on the season after opening the 2021 slate with a 79-70 loss to Lehigh on Saturday, January 9.
• Frannie Hottinger paced the Mountain Hawks with 21 points after scoring 18 on Saturday. 
• Mary Clougherty was also back in double-figures after being held to only three points on Saturday. The senior, who averaged over 20 points in the wins over Lafayette to open the season on January 2-3, put up 15 on Monday.
• Mackenzie Kramer, who led the team on Saturday with 21 points, and Megan Walker finished Monday's contest with 11 each.
• Clair Steele pitched in a game-high eight assists while Mariah Sexe led Lehigh on the boards with seven rebounds.
• American brought down 34 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive end for 14 second chance points, and added 12 assists and seven steals after forcing 14 Lehigh miscues. The Eagles gave up only 11 turnovers to improve on the 17 they gave up on Saturday.
• Lehigh, though, hit 16 points off second chance opportunities, pulling 12 offensive rebounds and 39 boards total.  
• The Eagles had a stronger start to Monday's game, holding Lehigh to only 58.3 percent shooting from the floor after the Mountain Hawks hit 71.4 percent on Saturday. Turnovers haunted Lehigh early as the Eagles capitalized off a series of bad passes to pick up a 6-0 lead in the opening minutes.
• The Mountain Hawks steadily crept their way back with a 5-1 run midway through the stanza before taking a one-point lead after a Sanders turnover to send the game into its first timeout.
• The two teams went back-and-forth after the break, with the Eagles tying the game twice before hitting a 7-3 run to rebuild a one-point lead with one minute left in the stanza. The fourth trey of the game from Lehigh erased that lead with 45 seconds remaining, though, and put AU back down by two heading into the second quarter, 20-18.
• A pair of quick three's from Hottinger forced an AU timeout 90 seconds into the second stanza after Lehigh jumped to a 27-20 lead. Freshman Emily Johns hit a quick layup coming out of the huddle to cut into the gap, and although the Eagles nearly matched the Mountain Hawks basket-for-basket, they couldn't quite keep pace as Lehigh hit five of their next six field goals from beyond the arc to close the half with a 46-34 lead.
• American came out of the locker room strong, hitting eight unanswered to land back within four. A pair of Edwards jumpers cut the lead down to three, but the Eagles wouldn't be able to nudge any closer. A foul on Hottinger put her on the line for two coming out of the media timeout, and she pulled Lehigh back up by 10 at 62-52. The Mountain Hawks finished the stanza with a 9-5 run, with only Brown hitting a field goal for the Eagles, to close the quarter at 71-57.
• Although Lehigh's perimeter shooting cooled in the fourth quarter, hitting only two of their 11 attempts, the Eagles struggled to string together scoring opportunities and closed shooting only 30 percent (6-20) in the final 10 minutes.

HEAR FROM COACH GEBBIA...
"Today's game was a much better start than the last game. It felt like our defense was a little more aggressive, we were getting some steals and stuff, so it was nice to see our defense be turned up a little bit. The problem is, though, that we can't sustain it right now because we're just not in good enough shape. I felt like we hung in there in the first half, and then we had a couple bad communication errors defensively, and Lehigh today was one of those teams that just makes you pay every time you make a mistake. And obviously they scored a school record for three's in a game, so that obviously hurt and it extends your defense a little more than you'd like.

"But there were some positives to take away. You know offensive rebounding is something we've been focusing on, and we did have double-digit offensive rebounds. We scored a lot of points in the paint which was nice to see, knowing that our three-point shooting isn't really our strength this year, and our field goal percentage and our assist-to-turnover ratio is good. So there are little positives you can pull from this. It just comes down to we have to play better on the defensive end and box out better, because we gave them too many offensive rebounds when we did get stops, and that really kills your momentum."

NEXT UP...

• The Eagles will return to action next weekend with a two-game series at Navy on Saturday, January 16, and Sunday, January 17. Both games will tip at 3 p.m. in Alumni Hall.

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).