WASHINGTON –– American University women's basketball is back in D.C. with Holy Cross on Saturday morning from Bender Arena. The Eagles are on the hunt to even the series against the Crusaders at 11 a.m. ET, airing nationally on ESPN+.
 
Note that first tip has been moved up due to the impending winter storm scheduled to hit The District on Saturday evening and continue through the weekend. The game will also be American's Pride Celebration game, come out to Bender with pride to join the celebration.
           
Follow Along

• Date/Time: Saturday, Jan. 24; 11 a.m.
• Site: Washington, D.C. (Bender Arena)
• TV: ESPN+ 

Series History

• The Crusaders have a 31-22 lead over the Eagles in a series going back to 2000, including the, 65-48, victory taken over AU in Worcester earlier this season. In Bender Arena though, American holds the narrow, 14-13, series lead to hold over HC on Saturday.
• In Massachusetts, just two weeks prior, the Eagles struggled to keep pace with the high-powered offense of Holy Cross, getting outscored in every quarter excluding the fourth, in which AU led the scoring by one.
• In that game, American was topped 46-20 in points in the paint and HC capitalized on its pickpocketing, outscoring AU 12-5 in points from turnovers. AU once again struggled with bench scoring, only 13 points coming from reserves.
• Madisyn Moore-Nicholson tied Charlotte Tuhy as top scorers for AU. Moore-Nicholson finished with 11 points, six of which came from the free throw line.
• Tuhy struggled to get started offensively against the Crusaders but finished with a double-double, leading all players on the court with 16 rebounds in addition to her 11 points.
• For Holy Cross, Simone Foreman, along with Meg Cahalan and Janie Bachmann led offensively. Foreman finished with 16 points, while Calahan and Bachmann each had 12. Bachmann also tallied five rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.

Tipping Off

• The Eagles, hot off a season sweep over Colgate that saw them grab their first road win of the season, are coming into Bender ranked seventh in the Patriot League with a 3-4 record. Holy Cross, on Jan. 10, handed the Eagles their first league loss this season.
• In a down-to-the-wire game on Cotterell Court, the Eagles were able to keep their composure and pull out the narrow, 44-41, victory over Colgate on the road. It came down to a layup from Charlotte Tuhy in the final 15 seconds that secured the victory; Tuhy finished the game leading all players with a career-high 22 points and 17 rebounds, the inverse of her 17 points and 22 rebounds against the Raiders two weeks prior.
• Tuhy was the star of the game once again for AU, playing all but two minutes. She secured her ninth double-double, and fourth in league play, with three minutes to play in the first half in a dominant performance.
• Tuhy also had a career-high five blocks. The last time an Eagle had five or more blocks was Cecily Carl back in 2016; this ties Tuhy at sixth all-time for blocks in a single game.
• American claimed the advantage points off turnovers (12-5) and in points in the paint (28-10). AU went just 2-for-23 from three point range.
• Apart from Tuhy, American's top two scorers on the season–Molly Driscoll, who averages 12.7 ppg, and Madisyn Moore-Nicholson, who averages 10.9 ppg–struggled against the Raiders defense in the lockdown performance. However, both managed to make valuable contributions to the winning effort, Moore-Nicholson was the team's second highest scorer with eight points and scored one of the Eagles two three pointers on the evening while Driscoll pulled six defensive rebounds.
• Driscoll, who leads the Eagles in scoring, sits at 12th in the Patriot League in scoring. Her 19 steals on the season lead AU and her 38 assists are second on the team behind Lexi Salazar's 45. Moore-Nicholson is averaging 10.9 ppg and has two 20+ point games on the year.
• Tuhy continues to show dominance on the glass, leading the Patriot league in rebounding with her 10.8 rpg average. She's averaging a double-double with her points per game average clocking in at 11.2. She currently sits at 14th in the NCAA in rebounding. In the first meeting with Colgate (Jan. 7), Tuhy tallied up 22 rebounds and 17 points and as a result, sits at second all-time at American for rebounds in a single game.
• AU has struggled with bench scoring this season. The Eagles have only outscored their opponents' bench four times, and only twice did it help them to secure the win. When it comes to rebounding, despite Tuhy's heroic efforts, the Eagles have only outrebounded their opponents three times this season, and twice in the Patriot League, topping both Army and Colgate in their most recent run of games.
• As a team, the Eagles are averaging 55.4 points per game this season while allowing opponents an average of 64.7 ppg. Despite their efficiency from three point range against Navy last past week when the squad shot 11-for-22 from distance, the Eagles are only shooting 26.6 percent from three on the season; Driscoll leads the squad with 29 made triples.

Scouting the Crusaders

• Holy Cross will be stepping into Bender on Saturday off a loss from Navy at home on Wednesday evening, falling 72-58 to the visiting Mids. Navy, with a 6-1 record, sits at second in the league while Holy Cross, holding a 4-3 record, sits at fourth. Both teams were efficient offensively, but while Holy Cross shot 40.3 percent from the floor, the Midshipmen went 46.8 percent.
• Hannah Griffin scored a career-high 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting to lead the Crusaders, while classmate Kendall Eddy added 11 points, three steals and three assists. Four different players scored eight or more points on the night as part of a balanced scoring attack.
• Griffin's 12 points surpassed her previous career-high of eight, and the junior guard also added three rebounds, two assists and a steal on the night.
• Cahalan, along with Kaitlyn Flanagan, added eight points apiece for the Crusaders in the team's efforts against Navy. Meanwhile, Simone Foreman led the Crusaders with nine boards as she surpassed the 700 mark for her career. Foreman leads the Crusaders and is fifth in the conference in rebounding, pulling down an average of 8.4 rebounds a game during her senior season.
• Fellow senior, Calahan tops Holy Cross and sits seventh in the league in scoring, sitting on an average of 14.5 ppg this season to pair with her 4.2 rebounds per game. Calahan will carry a field goal percentage of 43.6 percent into Bender on Saturday morning; she's sixth in the league in efficiency.
• Flanagan, along with her 8.8 ppg average, has been doling out dimes this season, second in the league with an average of 4.0 assists per game.
• As a team, Holy Cross is third in the league in scoring margin (-1.1), averaging 59.3 ppg while allowing opponents 60.4 ppg. Only two teams in the league are in the positives, Army West Point (11.4) and Navy (8.0). Shooting 39.8 percent from the floor on the season, HC is allowing opponents 38.9 percent shooting, struggling to lock in defensively. 

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