Women's Basketball Continues Road Stint with Monday Game at Loyola Maryland

WASHINGTON – On Monday, the Eagles of the American University women's basketball squad remain on the road, this time heading to Baltimore to take on Loyola Maryland. Tip against the Greyhounds is set for 4 p.m. ET, airing nationally on CBS Sports Network.

The game is the first of a double-header, with the men's programs for the Eagles and Greyhounds battling it out in Reitz Arena beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

Follow Along

Date & Time: Monday, Jan. 13; 4 p.m.
Site: Baltimore, Md. (Reitz Arena)
TV: CBSSN

Series History

American leads Loyola 28-8 in the series history. In the home-away split, the Eagles have come close to shutting out the Greyhounds almost entirely home (14-2) and have an outstanding away game record (12-5) in Reitz Arena as well.
In the past five meetings, the Eagles hold a 4-1 advantage over the Greyhounds. Last season, American split with Loyola, 1-1, each team winning away.
In the most recent game against Loyola Maryland, the Eagles won 73-70 on Mar. 6, 2024, to enter the Patriot League Tournament the No. 9 seed. Kayla Henning hit five free throws in the final 25 seconds to seal the victory.
Anna LeMaster scored a team-high 16 points and fell just short of a double-double with nine rebounds. Anna Rescifina set a new career high of 13 points, going 4-for-4 from the floor.

Quick Hits

American is still looking for its first win of the season after starting 0-15 overall and 0-4 in League play. Most recently, the Eagles endured a loss to the Bison of Bucknell in Lewisburg, for game four of the PL season.
The Eagles and the Bison battled it out, tied at 29-all when the halftime buzzer sounded, but Bucknell cruised past AU, courtesy of a career-high scoring night from Ashley Sofilkanich, in the second half to win 65-50.
Cecilia Kay finished the game off with her third double-double, her second in league play with 15 boards, the most of any player on the floor. At halftime, with 13, she was outrebounding the entire Bucknell team. She also led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points.
Guard Ivy Bales was the heart of the game throughout. Bales grinded out eight points. She was end-to-end on the floor, and despite not scoring in double-digits, the graduate student tallied two rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. Her two blocks matching her career-high that hasn't been hit since the team played Navy two seasons ago in 2023.
Leading the squad in both rebounding and scoring, the freshman Kay is now fifth in the league in rebounding, averaging 7.6 boards per game, and she averages 10.8 points per game. She is also leading the Eagles, and is third in the league, in blocked shots (25).
Bales ranks fourth in the Patriot League for assist/turnover ratio with 1.8. She also has 17 steals, leading the squad in the stat, and is second on the team in rebounding with 5.5 rpg.

Scouting Loyola Maryland

The Greyhounds rank ninth in the Patriot League with an 0-4 record like that of the Eagles; however, their overall record is 6-9 for a .400 win percentage. They're coming off a narrow, four point loss to the Midshipmen of Navy on Saturday afternoon that saw them fall 64-59 to the Mids in Annapolis.
Led by Amandine Amorich with 20 points and Koi Sims with 17, Loyola shot better than Navy overall, 48 percent from the floor to Navy's 39 percent. They also outpaced the Mids on the boards, leading 42-26 in rebounds.
Each team had six second-chance points, and while Loyola led 40-26 in points in the paint, Navy led 21-12 in points off turnovers and tallied 12 bench points to Loyola's three. The Mids dropped six three pointers to the Greyhounds three and each team went to the line 16 times, but the Navy converted 11 of those attempts to Loyola's eight.
Sims leads the Patriot League in rebounds, averaging 10.5 per game. She also ranks fourth in blocks with 19 on the season.
The Greyhounds' Laura Salmeron (13.1 ppg) and Amorich (11.6 ppg) both average over 10 points per game, raking at seventh and 12th in the Patriot League rankings. Koi is averaging close to those marks, with 9.8 ppg. Salmeron is seventh in the league in field goal percentage, accuracy a strong suit, shooting .405 percent.
Amorich and Salmera are seventh and eighth in the league in steals, with 25 and 23 steals, respectively.