Women’s Hoops Continues Road Stint with Trip to Colgate

WASHINGTON – The American University women's basketball team is back out on the road this weekend, closing out a two-game trip with a visit to Colgate. The Eagles and the Raiders are meeting for the first time this Patriot League season, with first tip set for 2 p.m.

Follow Along

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 25; 2 p.m.
Site: Hamilton, N.Y. (Cotterell Court)
TV: ESPN+

Series History

Across the last eight meetings, the Eagles and the Raiders have been evenly matched, splitting each of the last five seasons in wins/losses. The last two seasons, the teams each won away from home and lost on their own courts. In Bender last season, Colgate won 72-60, and on Cotterell Court, American claimed a narrow 56-54 victory.
In both games last season, Eagles' alumna Emily Johns led for American while Taisia McMillan led at AU offensively with 12 points and Sophie Diehl grabbed 10 boards. At home, Ivy Bales dropped nine points and had four assists, four rebounds, and two steals to stuff her stat sheet line.
At Colgate, the Raiders were led by Madison Schiller and Taylor Golembiewski with 14 and 15 points. Schiller and Golembiewski led defensively as well with eight rebounds apiece. The only player not returning for Colgate is McMillan. Eagles' Bailey Garbee went 5-for-7 from the floor to finish with 12 points. She was seemingly everywhere with two rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block to stuff her line on the stat sheet.

Quick Hits

The Eagles are still winless on the season, holding an 0-18 record overall and going 0-7 in the first third of Patriot League play. Most recently, American dropped a close contest in which Lehigh surged ahead in the final three minutes to win 61-55.
Despite holding the Mountain Hawks to their second lowest field goal percentage all season, holding a better overall and three point field goal percentage in the game, and edging them in rebounds 39-37, American allowed 26 turnovers to Lehigh's 16 and they proved costly.
As were the fouls, American allowed the Lehigh to go to the line 20 times while the Mountain Hawks only gave the Eagles seven opportunities from the charity stripe.
Freshman forward Cecilia Kay outrebounded anyone else on the court by double with 16, a career high for her. She also earned her fourth double-double of the season when she dropped 14 points.
AU was led against the Mountain Hawks offensively by Laura Nogues (15 pts), thanks to 6-for-9 shooting; however, the Eagles were also hindered by Nogues and her eight turnovers despite her four assists and two steals.
Two other players, Bailey Garbee (12) and Ivy Bales (10) scored in double digits for AU. Bales also boxed out for eight rebounds and Garbee had a team-leading four steals.
Kay leads the Eagles offensively and defensively, scoring an average of 11.2 ppg, and collecting an average of 8.3 rebounds per game. The 6'2 freshman has started in every contest for AU in her collegiate debut season. In the league, Kay is second in blocked shots (29) and third in rebounding.
Bales ranks third in the Patriot League for assist/turnover ratio with 1.7 and is ninth in assists (53). She also has 21 steals, leading the squad in the stat, and is second on the team in rebounding with 5.2 rpg.
Bales is the 20th player in AU history to become a member of the 500 rebound club, having hit the milestone in December against Towson. She has a career total of 564 boards. She is 13 rebounds away from joining the prestigious top 10 list of most in American history.

Scouting Colgate

Colgate has held down its home court advantage (8-1) for almost all its games this season with the exception of its first meeting with Bucknell (Jan. 5), in which the visitors won, 51-34. The Bison have since swept the Crusaders, dropping Colgate this past Wednesday.
The Raiders had a four-game win streak until they were defeated by the Bison, for the second time this season, in a close game while on the road, falling 71-67.
In their most recent game, against Bucknell, the Raiders took advantage of the charity stripe to tie up against the Bison and send the game into overtime. While trying to keep up with the Bison and drawing several fouls in overtime, hitting all but one of their free throws, it was not enough to get ahead against the Bucknell on their home court.
Colgate could not overcome the deficit and was defeated in overtime after 23 lead changes throughout the contest.
The Raiders are third in the Patriot League in both offense and defense this season, averaging 67.1 points per game and holding opponents to just 58.1 percent.
Junior guard Anne Bair has earned top three in assists in the league, averaging 3.9 per game, while also averaging 12.0 points per game to help the Raiders stay 4-3 in the Patriot League so far this season. Blair and senior guard Taylor Golembiewski (12.9) are the leading scorers for Colgate this season. Senior forward Sophia Diehl is closing in, averaging 9.2 ppg. Diehl also leads in rebounding with 5.7 boards per game.
Colgate holds second place in the league for total points scored against Union College, earning 92 points in a single game to win at home
The Raiders take advantage of the free throw line, shooting 75 percent this season, putting them in the top three spot in the league.