Opening Tip
- The Leopards travel to American, where their season ended a year ago in the Patriot League tournament.
 
- Last time out, Lafayette snapped its four-game losing skid when senior Alex Cantwell connected on a career-high three 3-pointers, scoring 15 points to lead the Maroon and White to a 55-42 victory over Navy on Youth Day at Kirby Sports Center.
 
- Sophomore Olivia Martino hit the 55th 3-pointer of her career, matching her with April Shippee '96 for 15th on the all-time Lafayette 3-point field goals list.
 
- The Maroon and White had its best shooting day of the season against Navy since the third game of the season when the Leopards shot 47 percent from the floor at Wagner. Against the Mids, Lafayette shot it 43 percent from the floor.
 
- Lafayette will return to Kirby on Jan. 30 to take on Boston U. at 6 p.m. which precedes the men's game against Lehigh.
 
Scouting American
The Eagles are red hot, winning their last six contests after dropping their Patriot League opener at Bucknell. All but one of those wins have been by double-digits.
 
Leading American is Elina Koskimies who averages 13.1 ppg, which ranks her sixth in the conference. Teammate Kaitlyn Marenyi is scoring 13.4 a contest, but has missed the last eight games.
 
American is the second-best 3-point shooting team in the league, shooting 36 percent from deep.
 
The Eagles feature four players in double-figures while Indeya Sanders leads the team in rebounding and assists with 5.1 and 3.7 a game.
 
In her sixth season, American is led by head coach Megan Gebbia.
 
All-Time Series
The matchup dates back to the 1981-82 season with American holding a 39-7 advantage overall.
 
Last season, the Eagles swept the season series, including the meeting in the Patriot League Tournament.  
 
Last Meeting
Lafayette's season came to a close in the Patriot League tournament at American, as the Eagles moved closer to their Patriot League Tournament title, defeating the Leopards 55-35.
 
A defensive battle with each team shooting below its average, Cecily Carl is the top returner from the game scoring 12 points with 10 boards.
 
A Long Distance Battle
Sophomore Olivia Martino matched April Shippee '99 on the all-time Lafayette 3-point field goals list with 55 in her career. Close behind is classmate Drew Freeland who has connected of 53 in her career. 
 
Efficiency Too
Along with climbing the 3-point field goals chart, Freeland and Martino would rank No. 1 and 2, respectively, on the all-time 3-point field goal percentage list. Freeland is shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc in her career and Martino is a 37 percent career shooter from deep.
 
The current No. 1 is Anna Ptasinski '18 who shot 39 percent a season ago. In her career, she shot 36 percent and hit 159, ranking third in program history.
 
Winning the Tip
Sophomore Natalie Kucowski has done the honors in the circle each game this season and has won 13-of-18 opening jumps on the season.
 
50 Rebound games
Lafayette has pulled in 50-plus rebounds four times this season after doing so zero times in 2017-18. The last time a Lafayette team has had multi 50-plus rebounding games was in the 2013-14 season when it occurred seven times. Before this season, the last time the Leopards had a 50-plus rebound game was the opener of the 2016-17 season at La Salle.
 
Double-Doubles Rising
Kucowski has already matched last season's double-double total with nine so far in 2018-19. She opened the season with four straight double-doubles and has four in the last eight games.
 
Stability from Kucowski
The Philadelphia native has scored in double-figures in eight of the last nine games and has done so in 15-of-18 games this season. She is getting her buckets in efficient fashion, shooting 41 percent from the field, ranking fourth in the Patriot League.
 
Getting Over the Hump
The Leopards hold a 5-1 record when scoring at least 60 points this season compared to their 2-10 mark when scoring under 60 points. Lafayette is also 2-0 when scoring over 70 points, doing so once in regulation and once in overtime this season.
25.
 
Clutch Cantwell
Last time out, senior Alex Cantwell connected on a career-high three 3-pointers and led the Leopards with 15 points to help snap a four-game losing skid. 
 
Block Party
Kucowski leads the Patriot League in total blocked shots (35) and blocked shots per game (2.1) by nearly 10 and 1.0 respectively.
 
She has recorded at least one block in all but one game this season and has put together 10 multi-block contests.
 
Protecting the Rock
The Leopards set their season low in turnovers in back-to-back outings last week. At Army, Lafayette turned it over just 13 times before setting a new mark with 11 giveaways at Loyola. Prior to that mark, the season low was 15, which the Leopards did four times this season.
 
Starters Scoring
For the first time in just over 10 years, Lafayette featured all five of its starters in double-figures against Holy Cross. Along with Martino's career game from beyond the arc, sophomore Natalie Kucowski tallied a double-double, Freeland scored 13, freshman Nicole Johnson had a career-high 11 points, going 8-of-10 from the line, and classmate Makaila Wilson had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards.
 
Wanted For Stealing
Kucowski had a career-high seven steals against Holy Cross as part of the Leopards' season-high 15 steals against the Crusaders. It was the most thefts by a Lafayette player since Jamie O'Hare had nine against Bucknell in the 2015-16 season.
 
Reinforcements Are Coming
Lafayette women's basketball head coach Kia Damon-Olson announced the program has signed three student-athletes to its class of 2023 as part of National Signing Day on Wednesday.
 
This is the second class to be signed under the current coaching staff and in their two seasons with the Leopards, freshmen have been a big part of the success on the floor.
 
Jess Booth comes from Owings Mills, Maryland where she plays for the McDonogh School. The 5-8 guard averaged 12 points a game in 2017-18 to go along with four assists and three rebounds per contest. She was named to the all-conference first team as a junior.
 
Reilly Campbell is a 6-2 forward from Wallingford, Connecticut. She played basketball at Lyman Hall High School in 2015-16 where she was a varsity starter and a Record Journal All-Area team member while garnering an All-State honorable mention as a high school freshman.
 
The third member of the class is Shanell Haskins from Bowie, Maryland. The 5-9 guard plays for Capital Christian Academy and is a team captain. The team claimed the NACA championship her freshman season and she has been named a McDonald's All-American nominee.