ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A well-rounded effort from the American University women's basketball team pulled the Eagles to their first victory of the season on Saturday, as they overcame Navy, 61-52, in Annapolis to open the two-game weekend against the Midshipmen.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Junior Jade Edwards was back atop the score sheet for the Eagles with 16 points and eight rebounds, but it was classmate Taylor Brown and sophomore Karla Vres who walked away with the two highlight performances on the day.
• Vres shot an impressive 5-for-6 from the field, including a perfect 5-for-5 through three quarters, to close with a career-high 12 points.
• Brown nabbed the last rebound of the game to pick up her first career double-double, adding 10 points to her career-high 10 boards. 
• Junior Emily Fisher pitched in a game-high four assists while sophomore Lauren Stack put up the game's only block. Stack also added a team-high two steals alongside freshman Ivy Bales.
• Bales, along with freshman Kayla Henning, also sparked the Eagles off the bench with four points each, including a couple clutch layups from Henning along the baseline to close the first and third quarters. Bales also added a pair of assists after two good looks to Brown down low and picked up two steals, converting one into a fast break layup. 
• The Eagles led the Mids on the boards with 42 rebounds, including 12 on the offensive end to pick up six second chance points. This was AU's best performance in rebounding since February 19, 2020, when the team picked up 44 at Navy. The nine-rebound margin is also the program's best since the 2018-19 season when the Eagles outpaced Holy Cross on the boards, 43-33, on Feb. 27.
• For the third consecutive game, AU led in the paint with 32 points to Navy's 30. American also capitalized off the Mids' 14 miscues, picking up another dozen points while Navy picked up seven points off AU's 13 turnovers.
• AU also led in bench points, in large part due to Vres' dozen. The Eagles had a season-high 20 while Navy put up 17 points.
• After averaging 44.5 percent shooting from the floor in the first two games of the season, the Eagles were held to only 39.3 percent on Saturday, going 22-for-56 overall and 2-for-16 from three. American also struggled from the line, hitting only 15 of 23 (.652) while the Mids went 4-for-11 (.364).
• The Mids were led by Jennifer Coleman, who put up the game's second double-double with 16 points and a dozen rebounds. Kolbi Green and Lindsay Llewellyn added 10 points each.
• First Quarter ... Taylor and senior Indeya Sanders got the Eagles rolling, picking up a quick four-point lead that held through most of the quarter. The Mids tied the game with just over three minutes remaining after putting up six unanswered points during an AU drought that lasted nearly three minutes. A three from Vres rebuilt the Eagles' lead, and the Mids played catch-up for the remainder of the stanza before a trey from Llewellyn with less than a minute on the clock tied the game at 14-14 heading into the break.
• Second Quarter ... Both teams struggled to get something going on the offensive end in the opening minutes of the second quarter, until Bales put AU back ahead with a nice drive to the basket after an inbound pass from Sanders. The Eagles held that lead for the rest of the half, with Navy landing back within one briefly after a Coleman layup with 1:59 left in the half. But AU was quick to respond with a 7-2 run, including five from Vres, to close the first half with a six-point lead, 26-20.
• Third Quarter ... The Eagles found their rhythm midway through the third quarter after Navy bumped back up within one after five quick points around the 8:00 mark. An defensive rebound from Fisher sent the team on transition where she found Edwards on the long pass to pick up the fast break layup, sending AU on an 8-0 run to pick up the largest lead yet at 36-27. Navy struggled to cut that lead down below five points, and a pair of layups from Edwards and freshman Kayla Henning sent the game into its final break at 42-33.
• Fourth Quarter ... American continued to dominate in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, putting up six unanswered points to hit the game's largest lead at 47-33 before Llewellyn put Navy on the board. The Eagles went on to lead by 16 twice over the next few minutes before Navy managed to regain its footing and hold AU to only two points for over three minutes to bump back within eight points. Edwards broke the run with her final basket of the night after a steal from Sanders on the other end, and Sanders closed the Eagles' scoring with a pair of free throws.

HEAR FROM COACH GEBBIA...
"I thought the first half was a little slow. We were a little bit out-of-sync on the offensive end, but in-sync on the defensive end, which was kind of different from the last series of games that we played. We needed to kind of work our way toward getting in-sync, and I think that happened in the third quarter for about a whole quarter, until the middle of the fourth. And it was nice to see the ball moving a little bit faster.

"I thought our freshmen played pretty well as far as getting some buckets when we needed them, especially in the first half. And then Karla coming off the bench and scoring 12 points was huge - she really got us kind of going and got us the lead. But it was really nice to see more balanced scoring with three people in double-digits. Taylor Brown had a double-double, that's the first of her career, and Jade doing what Jade normally does which is put up points. Overall, it was a solid team effort and I was just happy that I could pretty much play everybody."

NEXT UP
The Eagles will return to Alumni Hall at 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 17, to close out the weekend double-header against Navy.

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).