Women's Basketball Release 12.17 

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- Patriot League women's basketball is back is action, after time off from competition for final exams. The weekend kicks off on Thursday when American and Lehigh hit the road for contests with Dartmouth and Rider, respectively, at 7 p.m.

Patriot League Twitter Notebook - @PL_WBB
* Nine games are on tap for this weekend (Thursday-Sunday), with Lehigh and American each playing twice.
* Army’s Kelsey Minato became the first women’s player in program history to reach 2,000 career points.
* After just-over 10 days off from competition, both American and Lehigh return to the court for road contests on Dec. 17.
* Five games this weekend can be seen on the Patriot League network.
* Army is listed at receiving votes in the most recent release of the week’s USA Today Coaches poll and is No. 18 on College Insider’s Mid-Major Top 25.
* Lehigh has also broken into the Mid-Major ranks as receiving votes.
* Last week, both Army and Holy Cross captured wins.
* At the creation of this document, there are 4 days, 23 hours, 03 minutes, and 55 seconds until Lafayette welcomes Colgate to open the Patriot League slate.

Patriot League Notebook

Women’s Basketball Players from Army West Point for 2,000, Alex
Who knows, it may be a jeopardy question some day. So just in case, the correct answer to ‘Who was the first women’s basketball player from Army West Point to reach 2,000 career points?’ would be “Who is Kelsey Minato”. Just two weeks ago, the senior guard became the Academy’s all-time leading scoring with 1,951 career points, besting Army Hall-of-Famer Katie Macfarlane’s previous standard of 1,941 points. Since then, Minato has reached another incredible milestone, after she sank a trey just 1:29 in Friday’s game at NJIT to become the first player in program history, and just fourth overall from the Academy, to reach the 2,000 point mark. With 2,019 career points as of now, she is just 59 points away from bumping Holy Cross’s Amy O’Brien out of second in the Patriot League history book and 443 away from matching top dog, Molly Creamer of Bucknell. With the official start of League play less than a week away, Minato has plenty of time left to continue her illustrious collegiate career.

Finally, Patriot League Basketball is Back
Now that the women’s basketball players have finished their final exams and enter holiday-mode, nine games are on tap for this weekend (Thursday-Sunday). Both American and Lehigh, which have been on just-over 10 day breaks from competition, will play twice this weekend, while Holy Cross, Lafayette, and Navy will remain on a break. The Eagles and Mountain Hawks kick off the weekend with Thursday night road games. Lehigh returns to the court at Rider and American travels north the pay a visit to Ivy foe Dartmouth. The first two games on the Patriot League Network this weekend will be on Saturday, beginning with Emerson at Army West Point at 1 p.m. PLN will then air St. Bonaventure at Colgate at 4 p.m. Boston University will also play on Saturday, as the Terriers travel to Amherst to play Massachusetts at 6 p.m. Loyola Maryland, Bucknell, and American will all play home contests that can be seen on the PLN, with the Greyhounds hosting UMBC (12 p.m.), the Bison welcoming Delaware (2 p.m.), and the Eagles remaining at the nest for Manhattan (5:30 p.m.). Lehigh plays in the lone road game on Sunday, heading to Hampton for a tipoff time of 3 p.m.

Less than a Week out From the Official Start of Patriot League Play
As some define the upcoming holiday season as the best time of the year because of family time, snow, and presents, others would say it’s the best time of the year, because of a different reason. Patriot League play begins. While eight of the ten teams are beginning their League schedule’s on Dec. 30, Colgate and Lafayette decided to kick things off earlier, a the Leopards host the Raiders on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 5 p.m.

Army 18 In Mid-Major Top 25, Receives Votes in USA Coaches Poll
Army West Point first appeared in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 at No. 24 with 99 points on Nov. 24. The Black Knights have now being holding it down at the No. 18 spot, sporting 273 points and an 8-1 record -- their lone loss of the season coming earlier in the season at the hands of then No. 9/14 Duke, 72-61. Lehigh also appeared in the latest rankings on Tuesday, Dec. 15 as receiving votes. In addition, Army is listed as receiving votes in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll that was released in the afternoon on Tuesday, Dec. 15. As a team, the Black Knights have the fourth-best three-point field goal percentage across all NCAA DI programs at 41.9 (65-for-155) in addition to owning the seventh-best team-game high, in the same category, at 64.7 (11-for-17) and was set at home against Albany.

Patriot League Among NCAA Statistics
There a handful of players and four team’s among the NCAA’s statistics. As a team, Lehigh checks in at the No. 4 team in the nation with 32 defensive rebounds per game, while Army West Point holds the fourth-best three-point field-goal percentage at 41.9 (65-for-155). Individually, Lehigh’s Lexi Martins remains at the top with 11 defensive rebounds, while Army’s Kelsey Minato set the individual game-high of 16 free throws made. In addition, Martins ranks second with 15.4 rebounds per game and is third with 139 rebounds. Colgate’s Josie Stockill also ranks among the nations leader’s at No. 4 with 31 blocked shots and 3.88 blocked shots per game.

Patriot League Championship, Army-Navy on CBS Sports Network
Both matchups between Army West Point and Navy this season are scheduled to air on CBS Sports Network, with the first of the two being played at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, January 23 at 11:30 a.m. as part of a double-header feature with the men’s teams. A second double-header featuring the Army West Point and Navy squads is on tap for Saturday, February 20, this time from Annapolis with the women tipping off at 11 a.m. CBS Sports Network will also televise the 2016 Patriot League Women’s Basketball Championships, for the seventh year in a row, on Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m.
CBS Sports Network, the 24-hour home of CBS Sports, is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, and to access the CBS Sports Network channel finder, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.

American Sports Network to Carry Pair of Regular Season Games
American Sports Network will broadcast two women’s basketball contests, beginning with action between Holy Cross and Lehigh in Bethlehem , Pa. on Sunday, January 17 at 3 p.m. The ASN schedule concludes with the regular season as Bucknell visits Lafayette on Wednesday, March 2 at 6 p.m.
American Sports Network is a sports programming initiative of Sinclair Networks Group, a division of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair’s television group reaches approximately 37.5% of US television households and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.

2016 Patriot League Tournament
The 2016 Patriot League Tournament, featuring all 10 schools, begins with the first round on Wednesday, March 5 followed by the quarterfinals two days later. The semifinals will be played on Friday, March 11, with the Patriot League Championship held on Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m. The first round, quarterfinal and semifinal games will be shown on Patriot League Network, with the championship on CBS Sports Network. All Patriot League Tournament games will be played at the site of the higher seed.

Follow the Action on the Patriot League Network
Once again, the Patriot League will partner with Campus Insiders on the Patriot League Network, a streaming platform that will enable fans to watch League regular season and postseason events for free. With the exception of the contests on CBS Sports Network, all home games both in non-League and Patriot League play will feature free live streaming on PLN.