Women's Basketball Release 2.16.16 

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- It's coming down to the wire, as the Patriot League women's basketball regular season nears its end. All ten teams will be in action for game 14 of the slate, playing on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and can be seen on the Patriot League Network.

Patriot League Twitter Notebook - @PL_WBB
* All ten teams will compete on Wednesday evening and can be seen on the Patriot League Network.
* The top six teams in the standings are tied at 12-1, 8-5, and 7-6.
* Army West Point broke the 20-win threshold for the 10th time in program history and did so for the fourth year in a row, marking the longest streak of at least 20 wins in team history.
* Bucknell’s Claire DeBoer collected her 1,000th career point in the Bison’s 79-60 win over Colgate
* Bucknell’s Jacquie Klotz was perfect from the floor against Colgate on Saturday, shooting 9-of-9 including a 5-of-5 three-point mark.
* Holy Cross took down third-place Lehigh 77-71 in overtime to tie the Mountain Hawks in the standings.
* With an 87-51 win over American, Army’s senior class now has an overall record of 91-27 over its three-plus-year career.
* Loyola handed Boston U. a 67-46 loss, as senior Colleen Marshall netted 20-plus points for the 7th time this season.
* Navy earned its third-straight win in League play, defeating Lafayette 64-48 at Alumni Hall.

Patriot League Notebook
Saturday Spoils Sole Possession in Standings
There are only two teams in the standings that have a differing record from the rest of the Patriot League. The top six teams -- Army West Point & Bucknell (12-1); Lehigh & Holy Cross (8-5); Navy & Loyola Maryland (7-6) -- currently share spots one, three, and five respectively in the standings. American has sole possession of seventh place with a 4-9 record, while Lafayette is locked in at eighth (3-10). The final two teams -- Colgate and Boston University -- also share the same record of 2-11. The Crusaders’ overtime win against the Mountain Hawks at the Hart Center handed Lehigh its second-straight loss and moved Holy Cross up in the standings to sit next to the opponent, tied for third. With the help of sophomore Jacquie Klotz’s near perfect across-the-board performance and 27 points, Bucknell cruised to a 79-60 victory over Colgate to continue leading the way with the Black Knights, who captured an 87-51 win over American. Tied with a 6-6 records, both the Mids and Greyhounds earned wins on Saturday to move over .500 and stay tied in the middle of the standings. Navy has now won three consecutive games, its longest streak in League play this season.

Patriot League Slate Winding Down, Only Five Games To Go
Each remaining outcome is more crucial than the next, as just five games are left in the Patriot League regular season. Game 14 of the schedule is slated for Wednesday and features a matchup between the number seven (American) and eight (Lafayette) teams in the standings, while the last two -- Colgate and Boston University -- will duke it out on the court for ninth in the standings, as both sport a 2-11 record against League opponents. Navy will seek to continue its winning steak and move up in the standings when the Mids travel to Bethlehem to meet Lehigh at Stabler Arena and both Bucknell and Army West Point will look to continue pacing the League with games against Loyola Maryland and Holy Cross, respectively. All five contest will broadcast for free on the Patriot League Network, beginning at 7 p.m.

Saturday’s Army-Navy Contest to Air on CBS Sports Network
A double-header featuring the Army West Point and Navy squads is on tap for Saturday, February 20 at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md. and will be televised on the CBS Sports Network. The women will play first, tipping off at 11 a.m. The men will follow after the conclusion of the women’s, with a projected start time of 1:30 p.m. The last time the two women’s teams met was at Madison Square Garden, where the Black Knights rolled to a 75-38 victory to capture the gold star in the 2015-16 Star Series presented by USAA.
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.

Looking to Join 1,000 Point Club
The Patriot League welcomed Bucknell junior Claire DeBoer to the 1,000 point club when she reached 1,001 career points with her first basket of Saturday’s game at Sojka Pavilion against Colgate. She entered the game with 999 career points, after scoring 15 in Wednesday’s win over Lehigh, and reached the accomplishment with a layup with 1:54 left in the first quarter to give the Bison a 20-8 lead over the Raiders. DeBoer is the 22nd player in program history to achieve the scoring milestone and third player in the Patriot League to accomplish the feat this season. Before DeBoer, Holy Cross senior Lisa Mifsud tallied exactly 1,000 career points with a trey at the 4:07 mark in the fourth quarter against Bucknell on Feb. 6. She was the second senior in the League to reach the milestone, as Lafayette senior Jamie O’Hare joined the club on January 9, when the Leopards defeated Boston University 71-56 at the Kirby Sports Center. With five more games left in the Patriot League regular season, two other players are inching closer towards the mark and will look to attain it over the course of the remaining games. Colgate senior Josie Stockill looks to be the next player, as she is just 18 points away with 982 career points. Lehigh junior Lexi Martins, who hit exactly 800 career rebounds with 15 against Holy Cross, is also approaching the 1,000 career-point mark with 930 points. Stockill, and Martins will become the 97th and 98th Patriot League women’s basketball players, respectively, to join the 1,000 point club if they reach the mark this season.

Army’s Kelsey Minato on Pace to Set Patriot League Scoring Record
Army West Point’s senior All-America candidate Kelsey Minato became the Academy’s all-time scoring leader on Wednesday, Feb. 10 against Colgate when she buried a three-pointer from the left corner with 27 seconds on the clock in the third quarter. She surpassed Kevin Houston’s (USMA’87) record of 2,325 and finished with 29 points to bring her career total to
2,336. Earlier in the season, Minato also became the first women’s basketball player at West Point to reach 2,000 career points. The senior guard now has 2,358 career points and is just 104 points away from breaking the women’s basketball Patriot League scoring record of 2,462 points -- held by Bucknell’s Molly Creamer (1999-03). Minato is currently averaging 23.7 points per game and mathematically, she would accumulate 118.5 points over the course of the final five games of the regular season to surpass the mark by 14.5 points.

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.

2016 Patriot League Tournament
The 2016 Patriot League Tournament, featuring all 10 teams playing at campus sites, begins with the first round on Saturday, March 5 (#10 seed plays at the #7 seed and the #9 seed visits the #8 seed) followed by the quarterfinals two days later (#1 overall seed hosting the 9/8 winner and the #5 seed playing at the #4 seed on one half of the bracket and the #2 seed at home against the 10/7 winner with the #6 seed at the #3 seed on the other side). The four remaining squads then move to on the semifinals and championship, which will be hosted by the highest-seeded semifinal team on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12. The first round and quarterfinal games will be shown on Patriot League Network as will the semifinals, while the championship game will be aired on CBS Sports Network. All Patriot League Tournament games will be played at the site of the higher seed.
More information can be found on the women’s basketball championship page, here.

Team Notebook
AMERICAN (6-18, 4-9) After showing a high powered offense on Wednesday night, the Eagles were hung up by the Black Knights on Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena, 87-51 ... American fell behind 11-4 in the first four minutes of the game and weren’t able to keep up with the League’s leading scorer ... Freshman Kaitlyn Lewis led the way for American with a career-high 15 points ... Senior Ari Booth chipped in eight, while sophomore Maria Liddane notched seven points.

ARMY WEST POINT (21-2, 12-1) The Black Knights saw four different players score in double digits to lead the team to an 87-51 victory over the Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena ... Army West Point jumped out to an 11-4 lead just four minutes into the game and never looked back, leading by as many as 40 in the fourth quarter ... The Black Knights victory marked the team’s 11th in a row, matching the second-largest win streak in program history ... All 18 of the players on Army’s roster have now scored this season, as freshman Ellen Dougherty netted her first career points (2) ... Seniors Kelsey Minato and Aimee Oertner were given commemorative basketballs prior to the contest, with Minato being recognized as the Academy’s all-time leading scorer and Oertner becoming the career blocks leader ... Minato led the team with a game-high 22 points and added three assists ... Oertner finished the night with 18 points, while classmate Jean Parker was right behind with 16 - backed by a 6-of-11 clip from the field, including a 4-of-6 showing from beyond the arc ... Sophomore Janae McNeal posted her first career double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds while grabbing four steals.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY (2-22, 2-11) The Terriers fell behind by 12 points at the end of the first quarter and wasn’t able to make up ground on the Greyhounds and fell on Saturday at Case Gym, 67-46 ... Boston University was able to outscore Loyola Maryland 13-11 in the final period but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit ... BU was led by grad student Troi Melton with 17 points - 11 of which came in the second half ... Junior Courtney Latham followed with 10 points and a trio of steals, while sophomore Corrine Williams posted a team-high eight rebounds and added five points and two steals.

BUCKNELL (18-6, 12-1) The Bison took control of the game, after the Raiders scored the first basket, and led the rest of the way to a 79-60 victory at Sojka Pavilion on Saturday ... Despite turning the ball over 22 times to Colgate’s 20, Bucknell created more points off the exchanges, 20-10 ... The Bison saw sophomore Jacquie Klotz put on an almost flawless game, going 9-of-9 from the field, including a 5-of-5 mark from beyond the arc, and a 4-of-5 showing from the line ... She finished with a team-high 27 points and added eight rebounds ... Junior Claire DeBoer reached the 1,000-point milestone of her career with her first basket of the game with 1:54 left in the first quarter to give the home team a 20-8 lead ... She finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals ... Two freshmen also reached double digits in scoring, as Kyi English netted 13 while also dishing out five assists and snagging three steals ... Kaitlyn Slagus pitched in 12 points.

COLGATE (4-19, 2-11) The Raiders scored the first basket of the game, but the Bison took control of the game and led the rest of the way to a 79-60 victory at Sojka Pavilion on Saturday ... Colgate had a second player turn in a 29-point performance, after one on Wednesday, as senior Paige Kriftcher set a career-high going 10-of-17 from the floor ... Her shooting clip also included a 5-of-9 mark from downtown ... Junior Katie Curtis chipped in 10 points and added four assists and four steals.

HOLY CROSS (11-13, 8-5) Senior Lisa Mifsud hit a three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter to force overtime with the Mountain Hawks ... The Crusaders then made four of their six free throws in the final 22 seconds to secure the 77-71 win on Saturday at the Hart Center ... Both teams saw their largest lead reach 11, with Holy Cross’ at 7:21 in the fourth ... The game also featured eight tied scores and four lead changes ... For her performance, Mifsud was presented with the Rev. George L. O’Brien Award for being the Most Valuable Player of the Winter Homecoming Game ... She led five different Crusaders in double-figures with 21 points - helped by a 4-of-8 performance from beyond the arc -- and also contributed five assists, three rebounds, and two steals ... Sophomore Infiniti Thomas-Waheed followed with 17 points, while adding five rebounds, three steals, and a career-high five blocks ... Senior Molly Hourigan tallied her sixth double-double of the season with 11 points and a team-high 13 rebounds, along with three blocks and three assists, while sophomore Katie Doherty also pitched in 11 points, and added five rebounds, three assists and a trio of steals ... Sophomore Tricia Byrne was the fifth player to score double-digits with 10 points, behind a 5-of-9 clip, and had a game-high five helpers.

LAFAYETTE (5-18, 3-10) The Leopards scored the first four points of the game, but the Mids tallied the next 12 and went on to put the game out of reach Saturday night at Alumni Hall, 64-48 ... Junior Maia Hood led the way for Lafayette with 13 points, after converting 13-of-14 from the charity stripe, while senior Jamie O’Hare netted 12 and added three assists ... Junior Ashley Lutz hauled in a team-high seven rebounds, while sophomore Sammy Stipa and freshman Alex Cantwell each came away with four steals.

LEHIGH (15-9, 8-5) After holding the lead for 24:02 minutes of the game, the Mountain Hawks saw the Crusaders make a comeback, hitting a trey with 1.8 seconds left in the game to send it into overtime ... Junior Lexi Martins converted a layup with 3:19 on the clock to tie it at 69-69, but Holy Cross finished the game on an 8-2 run to secure a 77-71 win on Saturday at the Hart Center ... Both teams saw their largest lead reach 11, with Lehigh’s coming at 6:27 in the second quarter ... The game also featured eight tied scores and four lead changes ... Martins collected her 18th double-double of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds ... Sophomore Quinci Mann pitched in 15 points and four assists, while senior Kerry Kinek grabbed 10 rebounds.

LOYOLA MARYLAND (10-14, 7-6) A 15-0 run sparked by senior Colleen Marshall, in which she netted 11 points from three treys and a layup, gave the Greyhounds the boost they needed to capture a 67-46 win over the Terriers on Saturday at Case Gym ... Loyola Maryland shot 50 percent from the floor - the second time this season - and was also 50 percent from three-point land ... Marshall finished with a game-high 25 points and also tallied five rebounds ... Classmate Jeneh Perry notched her sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore Bri Betz-White added 15 points - scoring 11 in the second half ... Each of the three - Marshall, Perry, & Betz-White - contributed two steals.

NAVY (13-11, 7-6) The Mids responded to the Leopards first four points of the game with 12 consecutive of their own as part of a 19-2 run that boosted them to the lead they needed and a 64-48 victory Saturday night at Alumni Hall ... Navy led by double figures for the final 32 minutes to ensure the win ... Four Mids made at least one three-point field goal, with junior Sarita Condie’s three from long range helping her to a team-high 13 points ... She also dished out three assists, as did classmates Danielle Poblarp and Justice Swett ... Poblarp also hit two baskets from beyond the arc, while freshman Christina Potts added a trio of treys ... Sophomore Taylor Dunham pitched in 11 points and made a pair of three-pointers ... Junior Ashanti Kennedy grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.