WORCESTER, Mass. – A dramatic overtime road victory for the Eagles was the result on Saturday afternoon when the American University women's basketball team (6-18, 5-8 PL) took on Holy Cross (18-6, 10-3 PL) in the Woo. The Eagles held the lead for much of the game until the final period when the Crusaders pushed back in a comeback attempt that fell short in overtime. American was led by Lauren Stack with 17 points, including the final shot from the floor in regulation that would force the Crusaders to score a free-throw to force overtime.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Stack had 17 points and six rebounds to lead the Eagles in The Woo. The senior forward went 8-13 from the floor.
• Kayla Henning finished right behind Stack with 16 points of her own. She went 7-8 from the charity stripe, had two rebounds, three assist, and three steals.
• Emily Johns grabbed 12 points and six rebounds, going 4-4 form the line in the matchup. She fouled out with 1:44 left in regulation play.
• Molly Lavin was the third Eagle with six rebounds. The freshman forward also had seven points.
• The Crusaders were led by Bronagh Power-Cassidy and Janelle Allen with 16 and 15 points respectively. On the boards, the Holy Cross was led by Lindsay Berger with six.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Eagles and the Crusaders came out with pace, both teams running the floor and causing turnovers. In the first five minutes, powerhouse Power-Cassidy scored two triple to give Holy Cross the edge, but only just. American was down two, 8-10, at the first break in play with 4:58 to play in the opening fame.
• Johns already had four points of her own, and Bales already had two points and two rebounds.
• Thanks to a mid-range jumper from Henning the Eagles took a 15-14 lead, but Holy Cross came back to lead 15-17 at the end of the first frame. Lavin had three rebounds to her line on the stat sheet.
• The Crusaders took a six-point lead two minutes into the second quarter, but Sadie Stetson cut that in half with a three before layups from Lauren Stack and Laura Nogues had the Eagles leading 22-21 with 5:41 to play in the half.
• At the break, American held their own six-point advantage, leading 31-25 and holding Holy Cross to just 33% from the floor while shooting 46% themselves.
• In the half, Stack had 11 points, going 5-7 with three rebounds. Stetson had two steals.
• Coming out of the break, Holy Cross was doing their best to close the gap, and had narrowed the lead to four, the Eagles still leading 33-29 when they called a timeout, to halt the Crusaders before they could attempt a run, with 6:40 left in the period.
• The Crusaders kept coming though, and at the media timeout with 4:57 left in the third, they had cut the deficit to two, outscoring the Eagles 6-2 but American still led 33-31.
• When the penultimate frame closed, the Eagles were still holding their lead by two, 42-40. The Crusaders out-rebounded AU 10-8 and outscored them 15-11.
• The fourth quarter was tense for both teams with the lead changing. Johns fouled out and with fifty seconds left the Eagles held a one-point lead before the Crusaders drained a two to take their own 1-point lead.
• Stack, with 25.1 seconds left in the game drained a two of her own to give American the narrow 57-56 lead.
• It was a trip to the free-throw line that gave the Crusaders the point they needed to force overtime. The Eagles shot 63% in the frame, going 5-8 from the field and 4-6 from the charity stripe.
• In overtime, the Eagles took a quick three-point lead with the basket and the foul drawn by Lavin.
• In the end, it would come down to the final seconds again, but with Henning's free-throw with seven seconds left the Eagles were up two and only had to hold out defensively. The Crusader's Allen only option was to throw up any shot she could with one second left and it didn't fall. The Eagles took the 67-65 win on the road over the number two team in the league.

UP NEXT
The Eagles will be returning to Bender to host Bucknell on Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. before heading off to Lehigh to take on the Mountain Hawks on Feb. 18 at 4 p.m.

PLAY4KAY

• Wednesday evening's game will also serve as the team's annual Play4Kay game in support of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Fans are asked to join both teams in wearing PINK in support of cancer research and the fight against ALL cancers involving women.
• For more information, please visit kayyow.com. 

Tickets are on sale now at AUEagles.com/Tickets!
 
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