Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Basketball Looks to Extend Road Win Streak to Five Tuesday at American
1/9/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2006
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Coming off an 88-51 victory over Navy to open its Patriot League season Saturday, Bucknell is aiming for its first 2-0 start in league play since 2001-02 Tuesday against American. The Bison will look to continue their four-game road win streak against the Eagles, who have lost six straight games. Freshman guard Amanda Brown netted a game-high 21 points, including 19 in the second half, in Saturday's win over the Mids. The team's leading scorer at 11.5 points per game, it was her team-high third 20-point game this season. One of Bucknell's strengths has been its balanced scoring that featureds five players averaging between 8.6 and 11.5 points per game. Since winning three of five games, American has dropped six straight and is seventh in the Patriot League in scoring at 56.1 points per game. The Eagles are yielding 65.6 points per contest. Veterans Tala Hadavi (13.3 ppg), Tara Williams (10.0 ppg) and Abby Lipskis (9.9 ppg) have provided the offensive firepower for American this season.
ABOUT AMERICAN: After winning three out of five games in early December, American has dropped six in a row heading into Tuesday's game with Bucknell. The road-weary Eagles lost five of those games away from Bender Arena, returning home for the first time since Dec. 10 last Saturday to face Lehigh. Senior guard Tala Hadavi is leading the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game, while junior guard Tara Williams is tallying 10.0. Just Williams and junior forward Abby Lipskis have started all 14 games for American, which is five losses shy of its total from all of last year. The Eagles, guided by second-year head coach Melissa McFerrin, are averaging just 56.1 points per game and are seventh in the Patriot League in scoring margin being outscored by 9.4 points per game.
BISON VS. THE EAGLES: American leads the series 8-5, but Bucknell leads 5-4 since ending the Eagles' four-game winning streak to open the series. The two teams have split eight games since American joined the Patriot League in 2001-02. The Bison have won two of the last three meetings, including last year's matchup at Bender Arena.
WITH A VICTORY OVER AMERICAN, BUCKNELL WOULD...
• ...win its first two Patriot League games for the first time since 2001-02
• ...defeat American in Bender Arena for the second consecutive year
• ...open its Patriot League road schedule with two victories for the first time since 2000-01
• ...win a fifth consecutive road game for the first time in program history
• ...improve to 101-97 all-time in Patriot League play
FOUR STRAIGHT ON ROAD TIES RECORD: Bucknell has won four consecutive road games to tie a program record that has been accomplished just twice in the 33 years of Bison basketball. The 1986-87 and 2000-01 squads also won four straight road contests.
FIVE STRAIGHT AWAY FROM HOME: Bucknell's victory over Navy was its fifth straight away from home. The Bison are one game shy of tying the program record of consecutive wins away from home, which was established by the 1986-87 squad.
Bucknell's Five-Game Win Streak Away from Sojka Pavilion Opponent Score vs. High Point 71-60 at UMES 93-92 (3OT) at Cornell 62-57 at Buffalo 74-63 at Navy 88-51
ROAD SWEET ROAD: After struggling to a 3-13 record away from Sojka Pavilion last year, Bucknell has posted an impressive 5-3 mark away from home this season, including 4-3 on the road. The Bison are averaging 69.9 points per game away from home and just 52.2 at Sojka Pavilion, where they own a 2-3 record.
30-POINT VICTORIES: Bucknell's 37-point win over Navy was the fourth-largest victory in program history. It was the biggest since an 83-44 win over Lafayette in 2000-01. The Bison have won by at least 30 points 18 times in the 33-year history of the program.
Largest Victories in Bison History Opponent Date Score Margin Coppin State Dec. 10, 1985 83-36 47 Susquehanna Jan. 31, 1975 73-27 46 Lafayette Feb. 7, 2001 83-44 39 Navy Jan. 7, 2006 88-51 37
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 333-219 edge overall. Brown, who was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time last 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. Schober earned her first career start Saturday at Navy.
PATRIOT LEAGUE OPENERS: Bucknell ended its string of three consecutive seasons of losing its Patriot League opener with its 88-51 victory over Navy Jan. 7. The Bison improved to 10-6 all-time in PL openers with the victory.
100TH PATRIOT LEAGUE WIN: With its victory over Navy Jan. 7, Bucknell won its 100th Patriot League game to join Holy Cross as the only 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.
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.
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 52 more blocks this year she is up to 124 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- 41 124
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 has blocked nine shots in two games since the rankings were posted to up her average to 4.0 blocks per game. She has 52 blocks in 13 games, putting her on pace to smash her own Bucknell single-season record of 72 blocks. As a team, the Bison rank 23rd in the nation, averaging nearly 5.5 blocks per game.
SINGLE-GAME BLOCKS FOR FOSTER: Hope Foster, who is second on Bucknell's career shot blocks list with 124, 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 52 blocks this season, and has at least one block in 28 consecutive games. She has blocked at least four shots in a game seven times this year and 14 times in 41 career games.
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 (twice) 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.
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 almost 42 percent of the team's points, grab more than 47 percent of the rebounds and dish out nearly 45 percent of the team's assists.
1,000 POINTS ON THE HORIZON: Through 66 career games, junior guard Lindsey Hollobaugh has amassed 976 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 24 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 14.8 points per game in her career, good for fourth on the Bison career list.
UP NEXT: After a two-game road trip, Bucknell returns home Saturday, Jan. 14, to host perennial Patriot League power Holy Cross. The game will be the second in a doubleheader with the men's team, which tips off against the Crusaders at 1 p.m. The women's game will start at 4 p.m. Bucknell is 8-28 all-time against Holy Cross, but has won three of the last four against the Crusaders.
