Women’s Hoops Heads North, Visits Boston U. Saturday

WASHINGTON – American University women's basketball is making the flight up to Boston to close out the week squaring off with Boston University on Saturday, Feb. 22. Opening tip between the Eagles and the Terriers is set for 2 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN+.

Follow Along

Date/Time: Saturday, Feb. 22; 2 p.m.
Site: Boston, Mass. (Case Gym)
TV: ESPN+

Series History

American leads BU 17-12 overall in the series, but the Terriers have an 8-5 historical advantage in Case Gym. In the past three seasons, Boston has a 4-1advantage over the Eagles, but of those five games, the three most recent were have been separated by four points or fewer.
In their first meeting this year, the Eagles led 36-28 at halftime and by a score of 54-50 through three frames. BU though, went on to outscore the Eagles 20-13 in the fourth period to claim the narrow, 70-67 victory in a midday matinee game in Bender Arena.
For American, freshman Cecilia Kay led with a then-career high of 22 points in her 39 minutes on the hardwood, she was also just one rebound away, with her nine, from a double-double. She led all players on the court in scoring.
Laura Nogues was the only other Eagle in double digit scoring position, going 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and 5-for-9 overall. She had 14 points and three steals, but she did allow eight turnovers. Fellow guard Ivy Bales topped all players on the court with 11 rebounds and tallied eight assists.
For Boston University, Alex Giannaros scored a team best 21 points and sophomore SiSi Bentley dropped a career high 15 points.
Giannaros nailed a trio of three-pointers and added three assists. Bentley scored on seven shots while securing seven rebounds. Sophomore Aoibhe Gormley filled the box score with eight points, six assists and four steals.

AU Quick Hits

On Wednesday, the Eagles welcomed the Black Knights of Army to Bender Arena and the visitors rolled past AU to a 20-point, 63-43 victory. The teams shot an even 36 percent overall from the floor, but Army surged ahead by shooting 46.7 percent in the first half alone and outpacing AU 20-8 in the first quarter.
American won the second and fourth quarters, but only by a collective three points.
The visitors dominated on the glass, too, topping American 43-28 in rebounds.
With almost half of American's points on the night, forward Grace Koepke had a career-high scoring night. The sophomore led the Eagles with her 21 points. She also had three rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block to stuff her stat line. She went 9-of-13 from the floor to shoot 69 percent on the evening.
Laura Nogues was the only other AU player to score in double digits with 11 points. Cecilia Kay, the freshman forward, led American on the boards with 11 rebounds. She added three blocks to the defensive effort.
Kay sits atop the Eagles' stat sheet this season, averaging 11.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. The rookie forward, having started every contest of her debut campaign, in currently second in the league for both blocks and rebounding.
Kay has inked herself into the AU record books with four regular season games to go in her debut season as an Eagle. In the game against Army (Feb. 19) Kay collected 11 rebounds, putting her single season total up 222. She sits at fifth most in a single season. In blocks, the freshman is just two away from joining the top 10 list of most in a single season with 38.
Ivy Bales is now ninth all time in AU history with 590 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 337.
Bales is also currently tied for second all-time in games played for AU with 126. The leading number of games played by an AU student athlete is 127 and there are four games remaining in the regular season.

Scouting Boston University

Boston U., with three wins in conference play, sits at eighth in the league after grabbing that third win over Loyola, 55-38, on Wednesday night in Baltimore. The Terriers hold a 4-8 home record in Case Gym, only one of the wins coming in conference play with a tight, 52-49, victory over local rival Holy Cross back in January.
Against the Greyhounds of Loyola, the Terriers sophomore Aoibhe Gormley matched her season high with 16 points and junior Anete Adler scored 13 points to pace the squad.
Gormley was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, adding six rebounds and three steals. Gormley has scored in double figures in four of her last eight games. Adler made five baskets and recorded three blocks. Freshman Allison Schwertner snagged 11 rebounds.
BU finished the game shooting just over 40 percent, with help from a 77.8 clip in the fourth quarter. BU coaxed the Greyhounds into 17 turnovers while allowing a season low 38 points. The squad only committed seven rebounds in the contest, and the last time BU committed fewer than 10 turnovers was Feb. 2024 in a win over Lehigh.
On the season, senior Alex Giannaros is seventh in the league in scoring, dropping an average of 13 ppg, and shooting 34 percent from beyond the arc. The guard averages 4.8 ppg higher than her next closest teammate, Schwertner, who averages 8.2 ppg. Schwertner does lead the team in rebounding though with an average of 5.1 per game.
Gormley is sixth in the league in assists, averaging 3.2 per game and is fourth in assist/turnover ratio, at 1.8. She's also solid defensively with 42 steals on the season, good enough for fourth in the Patriot League.
As a team, Boston sits at 10th in the league in combined team rebounds, only averaging 30.3 to AU's 34.7, which situates the D.C. based team at fourth in the league. However, the Terriers are ninth and the Eagles 10th in turnover margin.