Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Basketball Opens Patriot League Slate at Navy Saturday
1/6/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2006
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Bucknell opens its 16th season of Patriot League play at Navy Saturday. It is the seventh time the Mids have been the first opponent of the league slate for the Bison. The two teams have split the previous six games when Navy was Bucknell's first PL opponent. The game is a battle between the two top teams in the Patriot League during the non-league slate. The Bison enter PL play with a 6-6 record, while the Mids topped the eight-team league with a 7-6 non-conference mark. Bucknell enters Saturday's game with a two-game losing streak, but it has won four straight games played away from Sojka Pavilion. Navy has lost two of its last three games and is coming off a grueling week. The Mids lost by 27 points to Radford last Friday night, then edged Long Island by four points three days later. They then took a road trip to Alabama where they lost to Troy in double overtime on Wednesday evening. Bucknell junior guard Lindsey Hollobaugh will be looking for her first first field goal since returning from a knee injury Dec. 30.
ABOUT NAVY: A strong offensive team, Navy leads the Patriot League in scoring average, 3-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage. The Mids ranked second to Army in field goal percentage during the non-league portion of the schedule. The only team in the Patriot League with a record above .500, Navy is just four wins shy of matching its win total from all of last year. Junior forward Carly Meyer, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, has not played the last five games. During that time the Mids have posted a 2-3 record, but senior backcourt mates Ashley Pelzek and Lauren Skrel have averaged 15.2 and 10.8 points per game, respectively. Each has netted more than 20 points once since Meyer last played. Third-year head coach Tom Marryott leads Navy. Marryott, who served as an assistant with the Navy men's program from 1998-2003, owns a career record of 31-41.
BISON VS. THE MIDS: Bucknell leads the all-time series, which began in 1981, 19-15. The Bison and Mids split two games last season with the visiting team winning each time. Prior to losing at Alumni Hall in 2004, Bucknell had won 13 straight games over Navy. The Bison are 7-8 all-time at Navy.
WITH A VICTORY OVER NAVY, BUCKNELL WOULD...
• ...improve to 3-0 against teams from Maryland this season
• ...win its first Patriot League game of the season for the first time since 2001-02
• ...open its Patriot League road schedule with a victory for the first time since defeating Navy 74-65 in 2002-03
• ...improve to 100-97 all-time in Patriot League play
BENCH PRODUCTION: Behind the scoring of freshmen Amanda Brown and Lauren Schober, Bucknell's bench has outscored the opponent's bench in nine of 12 games and holds a 310-195 edge overall. Brown, who was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time Tuesday against Stony Brook, has scored 111 total points when coming off the bench, while Schober has contributed 99 to account for the bulk of the offensive production.
PATRIOT LEAGUE OPENERS: Despite losing three consecutive Patriot League openers, Bucknell is 9-6 in the first game of the Patriot League season. The Bison and Mids have met six previous times in Bucknell's Patriot League opener with each team winning three times. The last time the two teams met in the league opener for the Bison was in 2000-01 and Bucknell won at Alumni Hall.
99 PATRIOT LEAGUE WINS: With its first Patriot League victory this season Bucknell will join Holy Cross as the only two teams in the history of the league to reach 100 wins. In its 16th season, the Patriot League has consisted of nine different teams over the years. Navy, which has won 85 games, is third on the list of victories behind the Crusaders and Bison.
ROAD SWEET ROAD: After struggling to a 3-13 record away from Sojka Pavilion last year, Bucknell has posted an impressive 4-3 mark away from home this season, including 3-3 on the road. The Bison are averaging 67.3 points per game away from home and just 52.2 at Sojka Pavilion, where they own a 2-3 record.
FAREWELL DECEMBER: Bucknell posted a 4-2 record in the month of December. The last time the Bison posted a month with a better winning percentage was March 2002 when they went 3-1 behind a Patriot League Tournament title.
CLOSE GAMES: After going 4-7 in games decided by six points or less in 2004-05, Bucknell is 4-1 in games decided by six points or less in 2005-06.
PLAYER/ROOKIE OF THE WEEK AWARDS: Four different Bucknell players have already picked up weekly awards from the Patriot League this season. Freshmen Corrine Keller, Lauren Schober and Amanda Brown have each won the Patriot League Rookie of the Week award, giving Bison a league-high three honorees. Last month sophomore Kesha Champion became the first Bucknell player to be named PL Player of the Week since Desire Almind was cited in March 2004. In 2004-05, Bucknell had three different players earn Rookie of the Week accolades, but no one grabbed Player of the Week.
TRIO STEPPED UP: Freshman Amanda Brown, sophomore Kesha Champion and freshman Corrine Keller stepped up their games when Lindsey Hollobaugh went down with a knee injury against High Point. In the four games Hollobaugh missed, the trio averaged a combined 38.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists. Through the season's first six games before Hollobaugh was injured, the threesome was averaging 19.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
REPLACING HOLLOBAUGH: Freshman Corrine Keller was inserted into the starting lineup against High Point in place of the injured Lindsey Hollobaugh. The first freshman to earn a starting assignment this year, she averaged 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 34.5 minutes per game in Hollobaugh's absence. The Bison have posted a 4-2 record overall with the Rochester, N.Y., native in the starting lineup.
BROWN NETS 20 POINTS AGAIN: When freshman guard Amanda Brown netted 20 points, including seven in overtime, during Bucknell's 93-92 triple overtime victory over UMES, she became the first Bison rookie to score at least 20 points since current junior Lindsey Hollobaugh tallied 20 in the 2004 Patriot League Tournament against Colgate. Brown bettered her 20-point performance with 22 points against Buffalo Dec. 28.
SOJKA SUCCESS: Bucknell is 2-3 at home this season and owns a 21-15 (.583) all-time record at Sojka Pavilion.
Bucknell's All-Time Record in Sojka Pavilion Year W-L Pct. 2002-03 4-2 .667 2003-04 8-5 .615 2004-05 7-5 .583 2005-06 2-3 .400 Totals 21-15 .583
BLOCKS RECORD FOR FOSTER: Sophomore Hope Foster had a banner defensive year as a freshman. She blocked 72 shots to break Desire Almind's year-old Bucknell single-season record of 62. With 48 more blocks this year she is up to 120 in her career, good for second on the Bison career list. In addition to moving up the Bucknell charts, Foster has quickly ascended the Patriot League blocks list, ranking seventh all-time.
Patriot League Career Blocks Player, School Years Games Blocks 1. Kathy Courtney, Holy Cross 1994-97 117 309 2. Lisa Andrews, Holy Cross 2002-05 118 201 3. Karen Juda, Holy Cross 1993-96 112 194 4. Kelly Roche, Fordham 1991-93 78 174 5. Leandra Fuller, Colgate 2002-05 119 170 6. Jessica DePalo, Lehigh 2002-05 114 136 7. Hope Foster, Bucknell 2005- 40 120
FOSTER AMONG NATION'S LEADERS IN BLOCKS: In the latest NCAA rankings, which include games through Jan. 2, Hope Foster ranked second in the nation in blocked shots. She blocked five shots against Stony Brook on Tuesday to up her average to 4.0 blocks per game. She has 48 blocks in 12 games, putting her on pace to demolish her Bucknell single-season record of 72 blocks. As a team, Bucknell ranks 23rd in the nation, averaging nearly 5.5 blocks per contest.
SINGLE-GAME BLOCKS FOR FOSTER: Hope Foster, who is second on Bucknell's career shot blocks list with 120, blocked seven shots for the second time in three games against Cornell Dec. 20. The seven blocks tied the Bucknell single-game record she already shared with Anne Kirwin. Foster has 48 blocks this season, and has at least one block in 27 consecutive games. She has blocked at least four shots in a game six time this year and 13 in 40 career games.
SOPHOMORE PRODUCTION: Without a senior on the roster, the Bison sophomore class of Kesha Champion, Kristina Collymore, Hope Foster, Sarah Latham and Ashton Sprouse has had to play like veterans. Each of the five members of the class has started at least one game this season and the quintet has piled up impressive statistics. They have combined to score more than 43 percent of the team's points, grab more than 47 percent of the rebounds and dish out nearly 46 percent of the team's assists.
1,000 POINTS ON THE HORIZON: Through 65 career games, junior guard Lindsey Hollobaugh has amassed 969 points. Her 899 points at the completion of her sophomore year was the third-highest figure in Bucknell history, trailing only Molly Creamer's 1,008 and Jennifer Walz's 973. Creamer and Walz are the only two Bison to reach 2,000 career points. With 31 more points, Hollobaugh will become the 15th player in Bucknell history to tally 1,000 career points. Desire Almind, who reached that plateau at the end of the 2002-03 campaign, was the last Bucknell player to reach 1,000 points. Hollobaugh, who scored a Bucknell-record 483 points as a freshman, is averaging 14.9 points per game in her career, good for fourth on the Bison career list.
THREE STRAIGHT ROAD WINS: Bucknell has won three consecutive road games for the first time since the 2000-01 campaign. That year, the Bison defeated Lafayette on the road and then played three home games before winning at Colgate and Lehigh. The last time Bucknell played three straight road contests and won them all was in 1986-87. The Bison had lost five consecutive road games prior to the current three-game spurt.
UP NEXT: Bucknell travels south again as it faces American in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. The Bison split two games with the Eagles last year with the visiting team winning each matchup. The last time Bucknell opened up the league slate with two straight road games was 2003-04 and it lost to American and Lehigh to start 0-2.
