BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico – The Eagles of the American University women's basketball team brought a 21 point deficit down to six in a little over a period, but the comeback momentum wasn't enough to overtake the Panthers of Milwaukee, and American dropped its first of two contests, 74-60, at El Clasico.
 
Inside the Box Score

• Grace Koepke was one rebound away from her first career double double. The sophomore forward finished the evening with 10 points and nine rebounds. She also had a steal and three blocks.
• For the evening, AU's leading scorer was Bailey Garbee, who matched her points total from the previous game with 12. The senior was prolific on all ends of the court. Garbee went 3-for-5 from three and 4-for-7 overall. She stuffed her line on the stat sheet with three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. She was in foul trouble though, finishing with four.
• Joining Garbee with four fouls was Molly Driscoll, Laura Nogues, and Anna Rescifina. The Eagles were heavy on rotation because of their guards' foul trouble. Freshman guard Driscoll had nine points and went 2-for-2 from three.
• For the Panthers, Kacee Baumhower and Kamy Peppler topped all players on the court with their 25 and 14 point games respectively. Peppler also had 10 assists.

How it Happened

• The Panthers went into zone defense to start the game, giving the Eagles a challenge to work through as the game began. In the early minutes of the first quarter, Milwaukee jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead at the 6:45 mark.
• The defensive efforts of Milwaukee gave American trouble, and the Panthers continued on the run until they were up 14-4. That run was cut into late in the period by Nogues getting a driving layup with 2:18 to play.
• Two turnovers from Milwaukee led to two threes, first from Rescifina and then from Salazar to put the score at 20-12 with the Panthers leading through one.
• A hook shot from Archer, followed by a pull up jumper from Bales, and a jumper from Koepke had the Eagles on a 6-3 run, which meant that AU was still hanging, down 26-18, at the 7:47 mark of the second frame.
• Milwaukee would pull away though on the back of multiple AU turnovers, almost doubling their lead at 36-18 with half a period to play before the break.
• At the half, the Eagles had eight players in scoring position, all but three of the eight players having only made a single basket. AU was down 41-25 to MKE at the half.
• In the third period, American started pushing back. Down as many as 21 at the 8:49 mark in the third period, American went 4-for-7 from deep in the period to bring the score to just a nine point difference, MKE leading 56-47 with one period remaining.
• Two of those triples came from Garbee, one from Nogues, and one from Driscoll. On the other end, Koepke had collected six defensive rebounds through three frames to keep the Panthers from scoring on the other end.
• American opened the fourth with another triple from Driscoll to reduce the deficit to six, down 56-50.
• The Eagles were unable to mount a comeback though when the Panthers went on a 11-5 run in the final five minutes. MKE took the win, 74-60.

On the Horizon
The Eagles are continuing on their gameplay in El Clasico over the with a final game against Winthrop on Friday, Nov. 29.
 
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