Women's Basketball 3/7/2025 11:00:00 AM

Women's Basketball Travels to Lafayette for PL First Round

WASHINGTON – It's tournament time for the No. 10 seed American University women's basketball team as the squad heads on the road to face No. 7 seed Lafayette on Saturday, Mar. 8. The first tip of the Patriot League First Round between the Eagles and the Leopards set for 4 p.m. and will air in ESPN+.

Follow Along

Date/Time: Saturday, Mar. 8; 4 p.m.
Site: Easton, Pa. (Kirby Sports Center)
TV: ESPN+
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Series History

Historically, American takes the edge in the series against Lafayette, but the Leopards aren't far from closing the gap. The teams are 1-1 this season, each win being a home victory. In the Eagles and Leopards last 10 match ups, the teams have gone 5-5.
In the most recent matchup, the Leopards took victory, 72-55, in dramatic fashion at home. Lafayette's Teresa Kiewiet had 27 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Abby Antognoli earned 18 points.
Freshman forward Cecilia Kay led the Eagles, with a double-double performance, finishing the competition with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Ivy Bales helped the team with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, adding four rebounds, three assists, and two steals to her stat line.
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 closely by Kay with 13 points. 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.
Between the two competitions this year, American was narrowly outrebounded, 71-61, overall. The Eagles averaged 41.8 percent from the floor overall and 33 percent from three while Lafayette averaged 39.2 percent from the floor and 27.5 percent from three.

AU Quick Hits

The Eagles finished off in their last regular season game with a battle against Bucknell. The Bison took a fast offensive approach and created a dominant lead, despite the Eagles sparking fire a few times, it wouldn't be enough to surpass the lead created and AU fell 77-46.
Bucknell narrowly led on the glass with a 42-39 advantage in rebounding, however Bucknell shot 47 percent from the floor overall and 36 percent from three. AU struggled offensively, being held to just 28 percent overall.
The freshman were the name of the game for the Eagles with Cecilia Kay earning 12 points, Madisyn Moore-Nicholson eight and Molly Driscoll six, leading the stat sheet for American.
This season, Kay sits atop the Eagles' stat sheet, averaging 11.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. The rookie forward, having started every contest of her debut campaign, is currently second in the league for both blocks and rebounding. In blocks, the freshman is now ninth all-time in a single season with 42. She's also third all-time on the single season rebounds list at AU with 253.
Ivy Bales is now eighth all time in AU history with 603 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 sixth in AU history in assists with 345. The graduate student also leads the team with 29 steals.
Bales is now the Eagle who has played the most games all-time as an AU student-athlete with 130. She became tied for the top spot with her appearance on the court at Navy with 128 games played (Feb. 26) and extended it against Colgate and Bucknell.
Junior Laura Nogues is also coming up with outstanding individual stats in the defensive and offensive end. Nogues has 24 steals and leads the team in three pointers scored with 37 and is 14th in the Patriot League for three-point field goal average (.352).

Scouting Lafayette

Lafayette comes into the contest after a narrow 57-54 home win against Loyola on Wednesday. In the league, the Leopards are 6-12 and clutch onto a 5-7 home record. American, in the series, leads Lafayette in Kirby with a 12-8 record in their favor, despite having dropped their three most recent games in Easton.
The Leopards' guard dynamic duo of Abby Antognoli (16) and Teresa Kiewiet (17) combined for 33 points in the win over Loyola.
On the season, Antognoli leads the squad with an average of 12.5 ppg, good enough for 10th in the league, while her field goal percentage (.380) is good enough for sixth. She currently leads the league in minutes and ranked second in assists, averaging 3.8 per game.
Kiewiet is ranked second on the team in points with 262 and has a team-leading 45.6 three point percentage.
Leading the team in free throw percentage is Kay Donahue with an average of 87.8. She also has a team-leading 11 blocks.
As a team, the Leopards take advantage of the free throw line, third in the league in percentage, shooting 76 percent from the line, just behind Colgate shooting 78.6 percent.