Game 24  ·  American (16-7, 9-4 PL) at Army West Point (14-10, 8-6 PL)
Saturday, February 19  ·  1 p.m. ET  ·  Christl Arena (West Point, N.Y.)

WASHINGTON - The American University women's basketball team will look to pick up its second regular season sweep of the year on Saturday as the Eagles visit Army West Point for a 1 p.m. tip in Christl Arena.

SPECTATOR POLICY

• All spectators 12 years of age and older will need to provide proof of vaccination to enter the venue. Fans under the age of 12 are exempt from providing proof of vaccination. Additionally, unless actively eating or drinking all spectators are required to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

THE STARTING FIVE

• American is coming in with a 3-0 run in the win column after a pair of home wins against Bucknell, 56-48, and Boston University, 70-57, last week and a road win at Navy, 54-43, on Wednesday.
• The win over Bucknell was the 151st career victory for head coach Megan Gebbia, making her the winningest head coach in program history. She moved past Jeff Thatcher (1989-00), who hired her for her first assistant coaching job in 1995-96 at American.
• Senior Emily Fisher has been a key catalyst for the Eagles in each of the last three wins, including leading the team against the Mids with 13 points and five assists. She has averaged 11.0 points and 4.7 assists over the last three games and gae up only a combined five turnovers (1.7 per game).
• Sophomore Emily Johns provided the much-needed spark off the bench for the Eagles in the second half, and led the team with nine rebounds alongside her seven points in only 14 minutes.
• American boasts one of the top defenses in the country. The Eagles rank 13th in Division I for 3-point defense, holding opponents to only 25.8 percent shooting from long range. They are also 48th for turnovers forced per game with 19.0, and lead the Patriot League with 9.2 steals per game (71st in Division I).

SCOUTING THE BLACK KNIGHTS

• Army comes into the weekend matinee with back-to-back wins over Navy, 70-66, and Colgate, 51-38.
• Alisa Fallon led the Black Knights with her fifth double-double of the season against the Raiders, scoring 24 points and adding 11 rebounds.
• Sam McNaughton, Sabria Hunter, and Lindsey Scamman added eight points each while Hunter added nine boards.
• The Black Knights trailed Colgate after the first quarter but dominated the next 30 minutes, holding the Raiders to single-digits in each of the remaining quarters.
• One of the top rebounding teams in the country, Army ranks 27th in Division I with 41.8 rpg and 25th with 15 offensive boards per game.
• Leading the way for the Black Knights is Hunter, who is eighth in the country with 4.3 offensive rebounds per game. She is third in the league with 9.5 rpg and has 10 double-doubles so far this season.
• Fallon is sixth in the league with a team-high 13.2 ppg.

SERIES HISTORY vs. ARMY WEST POINT

• American is on a 9-0 run against the Black Knights dating back to the 2017-18 season. Prior to that, Army was on a run of its own, winning nine of 10 meetings between 2013 and 2017.
• The teams first met on Dec. 31, 1996, in West Point with the Eagles claiming a 79-39 victory.
• Head coach Megan Gebbia is 10-8 against Army since coming to American in 2013-14.

THE LAST TIME WE MET...

• The Eagles had an absolutely dominant first half on Jan. 19 to pull to an 80-65 win over Army.
• AU led 48-29 at halftime after shooting 66.7 percent (20-30) from the floor in the first 20 minutes. This was the highest single-half output for the Eagles since the 2018-19 season when they scored 49 points in the first half against Colgate (W, 76-57).
• Included in that first half run was a 33-point second quarter - a new single-quarter program record, beating out the two occasions in which the team scored 30 in the first quarter against UMBC (2016 and 2018).
• It was an even offensive effort with 10 players scoring and all 14 putting in minutes, including junior Sadie Stetson who played her first game in the AU uniform after being out with injury since before her freshman season.
• Jade Edwards led with 15 points followed by Maddie Doring with 12 and Taylor Brown with 11.
• American closed shooting a season-high 54.9 percent (28-51) from the floor and forced a season-high 27 turnovers from the Black Knights.
• This was the first 80-point game for AU since Jan. 16, 2019, when the team beat Loyola, 82-38, in Bender.

#AUWBB vs. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE

• American holds a 209-107 (.661) record in Patriot League play, and an overall record of 266-139 (.657) against Patriot League opponents.
• Included in that are winning records against each team in the conference with the exception of Holy Cross, who has a five-game advantage over the Eagles.
• Head Coach Megan Gebbia has a 101-47 (.682) record in conference play since arriving at AU in 2013-14, and is 13-6 in the Patriot League Tournament, including the program's only two PL titles in 2015 and and 2018. 

THE LAST TIME OUT

• American survived a chaotic game on Wednesday to pick up its second road win of the conference season with a 54-43 final at Navy.
• The two teams combined for 46 turnovers with the Mids giving up 25 miscues to 21 from AU.
• Senior Emily Fisher stepped up to lead the Eagles offensively, posting 13 points alongside her five assists while giving up only two turnovers.
• Sophomore Emily Johns came off the bench to give a clutch performance, scoring seven points and leading the team with nine rebounds in only 14 minutes of play.
• The Eagles trailed 16-8 by the end of the first quarter but took over in the second, hitting a 12-4 run to tie the game at 20-20 by halftime.
• The Mids gained a brief one-point advantage early in the fourth quarter, but otherwise it was all AU including a closing 12-2 run to close with the 11-point advantage.

THE GOAT

• With last week's win over Bucknell, American University head coach Megan Gebbia officially became the winningest coach in program history with her 151st career victory.
• Now in her ninth season with the Eagles, she owns a career record of 153-104 (.595).
• Gebbia passed Jeff Thatcher (1989-00) in the history books. Thatcher, who closed his career with a record of 150-156 (.490) hired Gebbia as an assistant during the 1995-96 season - her first coaching job after graduating from Towson.
• In fact, Wednesday's win made this the winningest STAFF in program history, as associate head coach Tiffany Coll, and assistant coaches Nikki Flores and Emily Stallings have been at AU with Gebbia since she arrived in 2013. Only Director of Operations Nicole Krusen has not been here all nine seasons (this is her sixth year).

SHOOT YOUR SHOT

• The Eagles are averaging only 52.7 FGA per game, but they know how to make them count with a 42.3 FG%, to rank second in the PL behind Boston U. (.426) and alongside Lehigh.
• The Eagles sat atop the league rankings for much of the season but have dropped in and out after being held to only a .406 FG% since the start of league play.
• Only seven teams have shot better than AU so far this season - UMBC (.373/.432), Towson (.429/.449), Boston University (.271/.464), Bucknell (.340/.467), Holy Cross (.267/.415), Lafayette (.357/.408), and Colgate (.410/.527).
• The Eagles have put in five games shooting 50 percent or higher so far this season - Army (.549), Colgate (.518), George Mason (.511), Boston U. (.500), and Radford (.500).
• American's .447 field goal percentage in the non-conference was the team's highest since Gebbia took the reins in 2013.
• Lauren Stack leads the team with 46.0 percent (40- 87) shooting from the field followed by Emily Johns with 45.1 percent (55-122).

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL...

• AU has struggled with turnovers in the early part of the season, averaging 19.3 through the nonconference.
• They've cleaned up the miscues since the start of league play, though, averaging 14.5 in the last 13 outings.
• The Eagles have also made their opponents pay for their mistakes, though, forcing a league-high 19.6 turnovers in conference play.
• American leads the league with 9.2 steals per game, including 9.7 per game against PL opponents.

PICKIN' POCKETS

• Jade Edwards and Taylor Brown continue to rank among the top in the league for steals, averaging 2.1 and 1.8 per game to rank second and fourth, respectively.
• Brown picked up a career-high four against Marist (11/12) and Colgate (1/5) while Edwards tied hers with five during the win against Longwood (12/18).
• Lauren Stack briefly added her name to the top-10 in the PL after picking up a career-high five steals against Bucknell (1/16). She is third for the Eagles with 1.3/game.

CLOSE 'EM OUT

• American ranks among some of the top perimeter defenses in Division I, holding opponents to only 25.8 percent from long range, including 24.9 percent in league play after holding eight PL opponents to under 25 percent so far this season.
• The Eagles are back atop the league rankings and sit in 13th in Division I.

NEXT UP
The Eagles will host Lehigh in back-to-back games next week with a 3 p.m. tip on Tuesday followed by a 7 p.m. start on Wednesday. Fans are encouraged to wear pink on Wednesday as the Eagles host their annual Play4Kay game in support of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. To read more about the national initiative, click here.

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).