LEWISBURG, Pa. – Despite winning the second half, it wasn't enough for the American University women's basketball team to complete the comeback over the Bucknell Bison on the road on Saturday evening and the Eagles had their season ended when they fell 77-71.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Anna LeMaster topped all scorers on the floor with 19 points and led the defensive efforts of both teams with 12 rebounds for her third career double-double. Her previous career-high in rebounds was 10.
• Molly Lavin nabbed her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The sophomore forward was second in rebounding and fourth in scoring.
• Point guards Kayla Henning and Laura Nogues each finished with 15 points. Nogues also tacked on five assists.
• For the Bison, the squad was led by Blake Matthews with 17 points. She also had 11 assists and six rebounds. On the glass, Ashley Sofilkanich led with seven rebounds.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game opened with a foul shot from Emily Johns before the action even began because of a technical foul, but from then on, it would be Bucknell in control. At the 4:58 mark of the first frame, the Bison had run ahead to a 15-5 lead.
• The Bison were 7-9 from the floor while the Eagles went 2-7 in the opening stretch. Through one, the Eagles found themselves down 27-18. Only Johns, Henning, and Nogues had scoring stats after the opening 10.
• The second frame saw more of the same, with four minutes left to play in the first half, the Eagles were still down 10 points, 35-25. While the Eagles had improved to shooting 52% from the field, going 11-for-21, Bucknell had downed 17-for-28.
• At the end of the half, American was down 45-31. Henning led all scorers for both teams with 12 points on 6-for-9 shooting.
• The second half followed the pattern of the first. With 3:15 to go in the penultimate quarter, American had scored 10 in the frame to Bucknell's 11. Although the Bison had only dropped one more point in the first seven minutes of the half, the deficit still held and Bucknell was up 56-41.
• The game was brought down to just a seven point differential thanks to rebounds from Lavin and Anna Rescifina, the Eagles trailing 62-55 at the end of the third.
• The Bison pushed on though and held the Eagles to just two points in the opening four minutes of the final quarter while scoring six themselves, up 68-57 with 6:00 to play.
• That Bucknell ran was cut by LeMaster with a long-range jumper to put the Eagles down by just eight, 68-60.
• That eight point difference would hold through the time of the media time out with 3:44 to play in the contest; American down 62-70. That deficit would be cut down to two when LeMaster drained a three with 1:07 left and the Eagles were down, 68-70.
• Bucknell would sink two free throws to go up four with 43 seconds remaining, but a Lavin free throw had us back within three, down 69-73. With 27 seconds to go, the Bison would sink two more free throws.
• In the end, it would be the free throws that sunk the Eagles in the contest. The Bison would make six in the last 43 seconds of the contest and that would be enough to push the score line to 77-71 with the edge to Bucknell.

KEEP UP WITH US
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).