The American University women’s basketball team extended their win streak to two games after defeating the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Bender Arena 61-52 Feb. 23.
Sophomore Riley DeRubbo and senior Jade Edwards led the Eagles with a combined 21 points.
“Jade can help you in every single way and we needed her to do that today for us to get the win,” head coach Megan Gebbia said after the game. “Riley is just solid, you can rely on her offensively and defensively.”
AU finished as a team shot 38.1 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from beyond the arc.
Following the opening tip, AU couldn’t establish a rhythm for the first three minutes of the game. The Eagles missed multiple shots, a consistent theme throughout the first quarter of the game.
Senior Emily Fisher got on the board first for the Eagles connecting on a layup. Shortly after, sophomore Ivy Bales followed by making a layup of her own to put AU down 9-4 after four minutes of play.
Lehigh’s Frannie Hottinger converted on a layup for the Mountain Hawks’ fourth field goal of the game after shooting 4-6 to open the contest. A Bales two-pointer brought AU within seven, despite an ugly start offensively.
Things started to pick up for AU after the Eagles hit on two shots in back-to-back possessions. Lehigh countered with more Hottinger points only for senior Maddie Doring to make a pull-up shot inside the arc, trailing the Mountain Hawks 15-8.
From there, sophomore Emily Johns began to find her stroke in the latter part of the first half, connecting on back-to-back attempts. Edwards made a pair of free throws after two consecutive layups from the Mountain Hawks to put AU down 28-21 with 2:57 left in the opening half.
Coming out of a timeout, senior Taylor Brown converted on an assist from Bales. Fisher also got in on the action by making her second basket of the game, with Lehigh leading 28-25.
The Eagles cut Lehigh’s lead to one, but Ella Stemmer made a layup to put the Mountain Hawks up 30-27 at the end of the first half.
AU finished the half led by Bales and Fisher combining for 12 points on 33.3 percent shooting from the field. As a team, the Eagles shot 29.4 percent on 10-34 shooting from the field and 8.3 percent from distance.
Hottinger led the Mountain Hawks, scoring eight points on 40 percent shooting. The Mountain Hawks shot 35.4 percent on 11-31 from the field and a mediocre 20 percent on 2-10 from distance in the first half.
AU opened the second half with a DeRubbo turn-around jumper from behind the arc to put the Eagles down 32-31. Following another Mountain Hawks layup, DeRubbo made another tough shot for her sixth point of the night.
Hottinger converted on her fifth and sixth free throws of the night, only for Doring to make her first three of the night leaving AU down 38-37.
Brown scored her 4th point of the game off a layup leading to the Mountain Hawks’ first timeout of the half with AU trailing 42-39 with 4:38 left in the quarter.
Following an Edwards layup and another from Johns, the Eagles took their first lead of the night at 43-42. Johns made her third bucket of the game, then Lehigh went cold after missing multiple shots leading to their second timeout of the half with 1:56 left in the quarter.
Johns came out of the timeout by nailing her fourth basket of the game off an assist from Fisher to put the Eagles up 45-42. The Mountain Hawks countered with a layup of their own, but Fisher responded with her 3rd bucket of the game.
The Eagles scored 10 straight until Hottinger threw in a layup. The Eagles then connected from the field followed up by a layup from Brown for her 6th point of the game which closed out the game for the Eagles.
“We really stayed composed during the second half of the game, we really picked up our energy and that got us going,” DeRubbo said postgame.
Final stats
DeRubbo and Edwards led the Eagles in scoring with 11 and 10 points each. Bales and Johns both scored 10 points as well.
