The American University women’s basketball team took care of business against the Colgate Raiders, winning 66-52 with a big second half effort.
Senior Jade Edwards scored a team-high 18 points while senior Taylor Brown scored 13 points, grabbed four rebounds and recorded four steals as AU moved to 8-3 on the season.
After having three consecutive games postponed, the AU offense showed no rust to begin the game as the interior attack started off with 6-15 shooting from the field. Each starter had at least one layup — Edwards had a pair, including the first bucket of the game — to give AU a 15-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
AU built its largest lead of the half at 14 and head coach Megan Gebbia went to her bench in the second quarter, inserting sophomores Kayla Henning, Ivy Bales and Emily Johns.
Henning grabbed two rebounds but went 1-3 from the field. Bales dished out two assists and grabbed a rebound, but the bench didn’t yield much first half production and Colgate cut back into AU’s lead.
Edwards was the first player to enter double-figures as she went into bully ball mode and scored on back to back buckets inside the paint to make it 25-11 at the 3:49 mark. From there it was tough sledding the rest of the half for AU. A 9-3 run by Colgate cut the AU lead to just eight with 1:33 remaining in the first half.
Johns scored and split a pair of free throws and Bales connected on a jumper. But back-to-back scores from Colgate kept the margin at ten and AU went into the break holding on to a 32-22 lead.
Despite the lead, AU shot poorly in the first half, ending the first 20 minutes 14-32 from the floor and 1-5 from three. The Eagles missed opportunities at the line too, shooting just 3-8. However, AU won the rebounding battle 22-20.
AU came out red-hot following the break. On the defensive end, AU went back to the 1-1-3 zone and on the other end, Jade Edwards ripped off three quick points out of the half. Junior Lauren Stack scored inside and Henning hit a floater to make it 41-29, breaking the game wide open before the first media timeout. Down 12, Colgate called timeout in an attempt to get back into the game.
The Eagles didn’t let up from there. Henning scored again inside, made a pair of free throws and followed it up with a mid-range jumper. Edwards and Brown scored inside to make it 51-38 and AU never looked back.
The bench got some extended time in the second half and Bales made the most of her time, dishing out an assist and making a jumper for good measure.
With three minutes remaining, freshman Jordyn Meunier made her season debut and the Bender Arena crowd stood and clapped as she entered the game.
AU cruised to a 66-52 win against Colgate before a quick turnaround this past weekend as they fell to Boston University 46-69.
