PL Semifinal  ·  #3 American (6-1 South Div., 7-3 Overall) at #2 Boston University (9-1 North Div., 11-2 Overall)
Thursday, March 11  ·  6 p.m.  ·  Boston University (Case Gym)
Broadcast Talent: Jacob Lintner and Brian Maurer

WASHINGTON - The three-seed American University women's basketball team will look to secure its eighth appearance in the Patriot League Championship since joining the league in 2001 on Thursday with a 6 p.m. tip against two-seed Boston University in the tournament quarterfinal.

THE STARTING FIVE

• American advanced to the Patriot League Tournament semifinal round with a decisive quarterfinal win over six-seed Army West Point, 76-56. Junior Emily Fisher continues to pace the team in the latter part of the season, putting up a season-high 19 points, nine rebounds, and five assists, leading the team in all three categories.
• Fisher opened the season against Lehigh and Navy (1/16), but then sat out for over a month before returning against Loyola (Md.) (2/20). In the four games since, she has averaged 14.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.0 apg, and has shot a nearly perfect 12-13 from the line after not missing a free throw since her first game back against Loyola.
• Junior Jade Edwards made her third consecutive Patriot League postseason awards release with selections to the First Team and All-Defensive Team. Edwards was on the All-Rookie Team in 2019, and made Second Team in 2020. She has led the league all season in scoring and currently averages a career-high 18.5 ppg.
• Sophomore Karla Vres continues to be one of the most efficient shooters in the league. She is currently second in the rankings with 63.3 percent from the field and leads in 3-point percentage (.667). Those numbers, if they hold, will put her in second in the program's single-season top-10 for field goal percentage.
• Freshmen Emily Johns and Ivy Bales have been the sparks off the bench for AU. Johns put up a career-high 13 against Army West Point and is sixth on the team with 5.6 ppg. Bales is right behind with 5.0 ppg and ranks fifth with 3.8 rpg and 1.7 apg.

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS

• Boston shot 59.1 percent (13-22) from long range to pull away with the 74-68 win over Lafayette during the Patriot League quarterfinal.
• Sydney Johnson led the Terriers with 19 points, hitting 7 of 15 from the field and 4 of 6 from three.
• Maggie Pina and Maren Durant followed with 17 each, including 5-for-8 shooting from Pina.
• Katie Nelson added another four treys en route to a 12-point effort. Johnson also led with seven rebounds and nine assists.
• Nelson leads the team's overall scoring this season with 12.5, ranking 12th in the league, while Childs leads the Terriers and ranks fourth in the PL with 7.8 boards per game. Nelson also ties for first in the PL with assists per game at 4.2.
• Durant sits just above AU's Karla Vres in the league rankings for field goal percentage, shooting an impressive 71.3 percent on the season. She also ranks second behind Lafayette's Kucowski for blocks with 21.
• As a team, BU leads the league defensively, allowing only 53.6 ppg while scoring 66.0 to rank third. The Terriers' opponents have shot only 37.0 percent from the field and averaged only 29.0 rpg.
• BU entered the postseason with three All-League selections in Katie Nelson (First Team), Sydney Johnson (Second Team), and Maren Durant (Third Team).
• The Terriers have won six of their last seven after a three-week layoff from Jan. 17 to Feb. 7.

JADE "JUICE" EDWARDS

• Junior Jade Edwards was selected to the PL Preseason All-League Team in December and was voted to the First Team and All-Defensive Team on March 3.
• She has ranked atop the PL leader board in scoring since her 31-point performance against Lehigh on Jan. 11, and still leads the league with 18.5 ppg.
• She ranks third in the PL in steals (2.5 per game) behind Navy's Kolbi Green and Holy Cross' Avery LaBarbera, third in FG percentage (.547), and dropped to ninth in rebounding (7.3 rpg) after pulling down only one against Army.
• Until Army, she was one of only three players in the league to rank in the top-five for both scoring and rebounding alongside Player of the Year Natalie Kucowski and Navy's Jennifer Coleman.
• That 31-point showing also landed her in the program's single-game top-10 as No. 10 alongside Kate Miller and Felicia Young.
• Edwards currently ranks 20th in Division I for field goal percentage (.547), 50th for steals per game (2.5) and 54th for points per game (18.5).
• She has four double-doubles this season, 10 in her career, and has put in three games over 20 points this year, 12 in her career.

VRES' EFFICIENCY

• Sophomore Karla Vres has stepped up in a big way for the Eagles this season - she is currently averaging a career-high 8.3 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 18.4 minutes per game, and is shooting 63.3 percent from the floor (31-49) and leads the league with 66.7 percent (10-15) from three.
• As a freshman, she was pulling down 1.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg, went 0-5 from three, and averaged only 7.6 minutes per game.
• Her current 63.3 percent shooting from the floor is second in the Patriot League, and would rank third in Division I if she met the 5.0 made FG's per game minimum for the NCAA (currently averaging 3.4 per game).
• Her current shooting percentage, if it holds, would also put her second in the program's single-season record book.
• Vres had a perfect day from the floor against Army, going 4-for-4, including 1-for-1 from three, but missed one of her two free throws.
• She nearly had another perfect performance at the start of the season, going 5-for-5 against Navy (1/16) until late in the game, closing with 5-for-6 shooting for what was then a career-high 12 points.
• Since her first career start against Loyola on Jan. 24, she has averaged 9.7 ppg, including a career-high 14 points in that Jan. 24 win.

FISHER DOWN THE STRETCH

• Junior Emily Fisher certainly knows how to end a season. After averaging only 4.9 ppg through 24 games in 2020 she picked up steam heading into the postseaon, putting up consecutive 12-point efforts against Holy Cross and Navy to close the regular season. She added another 18 against Navy in the PL Tournament First Round before being held to four against BU in the quarterfinal.
• The final stretch of games this season has looked the same. In the last four games, Fisher has averaged 14.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 4.0 apg, and shot a nearly perfect 12-for-13 from the line.
• She hasn't missed a free throw since Feb. 20 against Loyola Maryland.
• Fisher has also shot over 50 percent in three of those four games, including a 7-for-10 effort against Army.
• Fisher missed three games over a five-week stretch due to injury before making her return against Loyola (Md.) on Feb. 20.
• She also had consecutive season-highs during that four-game running, scoring 10 points against Loyola (2/20) to tie her best from Lehigh (1/11) before hitting 12 against Loyola (2/21), 16 against Navy (2/24), and 19 against Army (3/7).
• Fisher also added a season-high six assists against Navy on Feb. 24, and a season-high nine rebounds against Army.

CALLED UP

• Junior Taylor Brown has taken over a starting role in all 10 games this season. She picked up seven starts during her 27 games last year.
• Brown has made it count, earning her first career double-double against Navy on Jan. 16 with 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. She was back at it on Jan. 17 with a career-high 12 points.
• She has landed at or near her career-high in three of the last four outings, starting with a personal record 13 points against Loyola on 2/20. She bested that performance on 2/21 with 16 points before landing back at 13 against Navy on 2/24.
• She was held to nine points against Army but pitched in three assists and added five rebounds and a steal.
• Brown currently ranks third on the team with a career-high 10.3 ppg, and is also bringing down a career-high 4.2 rpg.

INDY'S RACIN'

• It's a race to the finish for senior Indeya Sanders as she continues to close in on the career top-10 list for assists. Now in the postseason, she is only 10 away from tying with Nichole Grant (1995-99) for 10th with 275.
• She currently ranks seventh in the Patriot League with 3.6 apg. Her single-game season-high is seven, but her career-high 10 from the win over Boston University on Feb. 22, 2020 (55-54).
• Sanders is also averaging a career-high 7.5 ppg to rank fifth on the team, and 4.3 rpg.
• One of the top free throw shooters in the PL, she sits second in the league and 32nd in DI (.857).
• Sanders scored a season-high 15 points during the win over Loyola on Jan. 24. She also added a season-high eight boards in her full 40 minutes.
• The Jan. 24 win over Loyola was the third time this season she put in 40 minutes, along with Jan. 11 (Lehigh) and Jan. 17 (Navy). She leads the Patriot League and is 28th in the country with 36.9 minutes per game.

HOW ABOUT THAT OFFENSE

• AU opened with back-to-back 70-point performances against Lehigh on Jan. 9 (L, 79-70) and Jan. 11 (L, 89-71), making this the fourth season since Gebbia took the reins that the Eagles averaged over 70 points in the first two outings, and the seventh time since 2000.
• The series against Lehigh was also the first time since the 2018-19 season that AU scored 70+ in back-to-back games.
• The team currently ranks fourth in the PL for scoring offense (65.4) and leads in field goal percentage (.463).
• In the Gebbia era, the Eagles have never averaged over 65.4 ppg after the first 10 games of the nonconference slate. In the PL schedule, it has happened four times - 2014-15 (65.5), 2016-17 (65.5), 2017-18 (68.3), and 2018-19 (65.9).
• All but one season (2016-17) ended in either an NCAA or WNIT appearance.

THAT FAMILY ATMOSPHERE

• Coach Gebbia and her staff hold a couple of unique distinctions in the Patriot League.
• Not only does AU have the league's only all-female coaching staff, the Eagles also boast the most consistent coaching staff in the PL.
• Associate head coach Tiffany Coll, and assistant coaches Nikki Flores and Emily Stallings all arrived at AU with Gebbia in 2013, making this their eighth season together.
• Only Boston's Marisa Moseley (3rd season), Bucknell's Trevor Woodruff (2nd), Holy Cross' Maureen Magarity (1st), and Navy's Tim Taylor (1st) have not had any changes with their assistant coaches during their tenures.
• The only assistant coach that tops the eight seasons from Coll, Flores, and Stallings is Glenn Rigney, who has been with Lehigh for 17 years.
• Nicole Krusen, the Eagles' director of operations, joined the staff in 2016 - this will be her fifth season.

VIRTUAL "PHIL BENDER" ARENA PRESENTED BY GEICO

• American University Athletics has announced a new virtual ticket campaign in an effort to sell out Bender Arena this coming basketball season. This new season-long initiative, presented by "TEAM AU" partner GEICO, will challenge Eagles fans and alumni to sell out each seat in Bender Arena for the 2020-21 basketball schedule. The "AU Founder" ticket price of $18.93 commemorates the year AU was founded. Click here to support AU Athletics by buying virtual tickets.

JOINING A NEW FAMILY

• The 2020-21 season will mark another milestone for the Patriot League, after the conference signed a multi-year agreement with ESPN to make ESPN+ the new home for all conference events.
• Fans can watch all of American's home events on ESPN+ with a subscription - either $5.99 a month or $59.99 per year. Fans can also subscribe to the service as part of the Disney Bundle for just $12.99 per month.

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).