Women's Basketball 2/11/2025 2:00:00 PM

Women’s Hoops Back on the Road to Face Lafayette

WASHINGTON – The American University women's basketball team is back out on the road this week with a midweek matchup against Lafayette on the docket for Wednesday evening. First tip for the Feb. 12 contest against the Eagles and the Leopards is set for 6 p.m.

Follow Along

Date/Time: Wednesday, Feb. 12; 6 p.m.
Site: Easton, Pa. (Kirby Sports Center)
TV: ESPN+

Series History

The series between American and Lafayette leans heavily toward American historically, but over the last three seasons, the Leopards hold a 3-2 edge over American, including two of the last two wins in Kirby.
In the most recent matchup though, on just two weeks prior in Bender, American was able to earn its first win of the season, 54-52, with a game that started close and stayed close throughout, grinding to victory.
In the first meeting this year, sophomore forward Grace Koepke led the Eagles, and all players on the court, in scoring with 18 points, followed by Cecilia Kay with 13 points, and Laura Nogues with nine. Koepke's career high came from 7-for-10 shooting, including going 3-for-3 from three point range.
Kay led all players on the court with nine rebounds and Koepke had eight while point guards Nogues and Lexi Salazar had a team leading four assists apiece.
American was narrowly outrebounded overall, 35-32. Overall, Eagles shot 43.2 percent from the floor overall and 42.9 percent from three while Lafayette shot 32.8 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three.
The Leopards only had one player scoring double digits, led by Teresa Kiewiet with 10. She also had five rebounds and one steal in the matchup. Abby Antognoli had nine points and five rebounds.

AU Quick Hits

This past weekend, American hosted Lehigh in Bender, and despite keeping pace for three of the four quarters, AU failed to hang with the Mountain Hawks in the third period and created a deficit it couldn't recover from, falling 67-52 to the league leaders.
At halftime, American was down four points, having been tied twice within the final few minutes of the first half. The Eagles held Lehigh to just three, three point field goals in the first half. In the third quarter, Lehigh found their offensive footing from a closer range to outscore AU, topping them 18-7 in the frame and holding a 48-33 lead.
It was a team effort in the final quarter, but both squads dropped 19 points in the final frame and AU couldn't use their momentum to pass the Mountain Hawks.
Cecilia Kay sits atop the Eagles' stat sheet this season, averaging 11.6 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. The rookie, having started every contest of her debut campaign, in currently second in the league for blocks and third for rebounding.
Junior Laura Nogues leads the team in distance shooting, holding a .358 percentage from deep while averaging 2.8 assists per game.
With her eight rebounds in the afternoon against Lehigh, Ivy Bales is now 10th all time in AU history with 579 career rebounds. Bales was the 20th player in AU history to become a member of the 500 rebound club, having hit the milestone in December against Towson. She is also now eighth in AU history in assists with 328.
Bales is also currently tied for 6th all time in games played for AU with 123. The leading number of games played by an AU student athlete is 127 and there are eight games remaining in the regular season.

Scouting Lafayette

Lafayette comes into the contest having halted a three-game loss backslide with a tenacious 61-60 road win at Navy on Saturday. In the league, the Leopards are 3-8 and hold a 3-7 home record. American, in the series, leads Lafayette in Kirby with a 17-9 record in their favor despite having dropped their two most recent games in Easton.
In the game against Navy, guards Abby Antognoli (14) and Sauda Ntaconayigize (10) and forward Tasha Chudy (15) combined for 39 points in the road win. Chudy also led the team with 10 rebounds for a double-double and went 7-of-10 from the floor. Chudy only averages 5.5 ppg and 3.9 rpg on the season and was the reason the Leopards were able to stun the Mids in Annapolis.
On the season, Antognoli leads the squad with an average of 12.7 ppg, good enough for eighth in the league, while her field goal percentage (.380) is good enough for sixth. She has 48 made three pointers on the year, with a 35.8 percentage from beyond the arc.
Antognoli is ranked second on the team in rebounding, pulling down 4.5 rpg and has a team-leading 29 steals. In the league, the senior guard is ranked second in assists, averaging 3.8 per game.
Leading the team in rebounding is Donahue with an average of 4.7 boards per game and she has a team-leading 11 blocks. The junior guard is also the second-leading scorer for the Leopards, pulling an average of 9.6 points per game across the season.
As a team, the Leopards take advantage of the free throw line, second in the league in percentage, shooting 77.9 percent from the line, just behind Lehigh shooting 78.9 percent.