Bucknell University Athletics
Three Bucknell Women's Basketball Players Earn Postseason Recognition from Patriot League
2/27/2007 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2007
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell junior forward Hope Foster (Washington, D.C./Dunbar) and sophomore guard Amanda Brown (Richardson, Texas/L.V. Berkner) both earned First Team All-Patriot League citations, the Patriot League office announced Tuesday during a media conference call involving the league's women's basketball head coaches. Additionally, freshman forward Le'Le' LeSeur (Snellville, Ga./Wesleyan) landed a spot on the All-Rookie squad.
The selections of Foster and Brown to the first team gave the Bison a first-team choice in eight of the last nine years. LeSeur is Bucknell's seventh All-Rookie Team member in the last five years.
Foster is no stranger to accolades from the Patriot League. She was a member of the All-Rookie Team two years ago and was a first-team choice as well as the Defensive Player of the Year last season. A four-time Patriot League Player of the Week this year, Foster is among the top-10 in the league in scoring (13.4 ppg), rebounding (8.0 rpg), field goal percentage (52.1%), free throw percentage (76.4%) and blocked shots (3.1 bpg).
Known for her defense heading into her junior campaign, Foster has upped her scoring average to a team-best 13.4 points per game this season behind 22 double-figure scoring games, including three 20-point outputs. On the verge of breaking into Bucknell's top-10 list for career rebounds with 661, Foster leads the Patriot League in rebounding, pulling down 8.0 per contest.
After shooting 43.1 percent her first two seasons, Foster has upped that to 52.1 percent this year, which ranks 58th nationally. Additionally, she is shooting 76.4 percent from the free throw line, up from 62.3 percent her first two campaigns.
While she is fourth in the Patriot League in scoring, Foster has made a name for herself on the defensive end of the floor over her career. She broke the Bucknell record for career blocked shots in the middle of her sophomore year and has 91 this year to up her career total to 258. Averaging 3.1 blocks per game this season, Foster ranks sixth in the nation in that category and is just four blocks from equaling both her career high and the Patriot League record. She posted a career-high 11 blocks in November against nationally ranked Michigan State and has at least one block in 80 of 86 career games, including 27 of 29 this year.
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After registering just six double-figure scoring games before Patriot League play, Brown scored at least 10 points in the first 13 games of the league slate, including four 20-point outputs.
An adept outside shooter, Brown is 54 of 123 from 3-point range this season and leads the league in percentage at 43.9 percent. She has knocked down at least three 3-pointers in 11 games and her 54 treys rank her fourth on the Bison single-season list. With 78 3-point field goals in her career she is sixth on the career ledger.
Overall this season, Brown is second on the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game and in assists with 2.6 per contest. She is also the Patriot League leader in steals, averaging 1.9 per game.
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LeSeur showed improvement throughout the regular season as she turned the ball over eight times in her first three games, but only 12 times in her final 14. She also opened the campaign shooting 5-for-24 from the field, but has converted 10 of her last 15 field goal attempts, including an eight-game stretch where she made at least half of her field goals in each contest.
With its three honorees, Bucknell has now copped 41 total Patriot League postseason honors in the 17 years of the conference. The Bison have had 14 members of the rookie team, 14 second-team awards and 13 first-team honorees.
Brown and Foster were joined on the All-Patriot League First Team by Cara Enright of Army, Kaitlin Foley of Holy Cross and Navy's Carly Meyer.
The All-Patriot League Second Team consisted of American's Liz Hayes, Army's Alex McGuire, Bethany O'Dell of Holy Cross, Vanessa Van De Venter from Lafayette and Lehigh's Adrienne Blount.
In addition to LeSeur, the six-person All-Rookie Team was Colgate's TaHara Williams, Briana McFadden and O'Dell from Holy Cross and Lehigh's Kristen Dalton and Alex Ross.
The major individual awards, including the Player of the Year, will be announced at Friday night's Patriot League Tournament banquet.
Bucknell enters this weekend's Patriot League Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second time in program history. The Bison, who totaled a 20-9 record during the regular season, will take on No. 8 Colgate in a quarterfinal matchup Saturday at 11 a.m. in Annapolis, Md. If it wins, Bucknell will face either No. 4 American or No. 5 Navy Sunday at 1 p.m. The championship game is slated for next Wednesday, March 7, at the home of the highest remaining seed. If the Bison are still alive, they will host the championship contest, which will be televised live nationally on ESPNU starting at 6 p.m.
