After clinching the fourth seed in the Patriot League Tournament with a victory over Lafayette Saturday, the Eagles will travel to Lewisburg, Pa., Friday to face the Leopards again for the first game of the tournament.
This season AU overcame a 0-6 start and a 0-2 start to conference play to finish in the top half of the PL. The Eagles won four of their last five games, including a physical victory over Navy last Thursday and a road win against Lafayette in which the team shot 51 percent from the field.
"Hopefully we've got confidence and momentum," said AU coach Jeff Jones. "While the regular season may not have played out the way that we wanted it to, we have an opportunity to accomplish something."
The game against Lafayette was especially important for the Eagles, as they entered the game knowing they would face the Leopards in the tournament's first round.
"Going into their place, we wanted to send a message," said junior guard Andre Ingram. "It was a statement game; we wanted to show them this is what they're going to see on Friday."
Despite a regular-season sweep of Lafayette and a potential second-round matchup with regular-season champions, Bucknell, the Eagles are not taking anything for granted.
"It's not that hard to focus when you realize that if you lose, you're done," said junior forward Brayden Billbe. "But it is only three games. Anyone can get hot for three games."
AU will face a Lafayette team that is hungry to get revenge for the previous two losses.
"We get a chance to play American again," said Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon in a teleconference. "We have not done that well against them this year, so hopefully the third time will be a charm."
The Leopards are lead offensively by All-PL Second Team forward Andrei Capusan. In his senior season, Capusan is averaging 11.9 points and four rebounds per game. He has turned it up down the stretch, as he has averaged 15.9 points over his last ten games.
"He has developed so much over the course of his four years at Lafayette," O'Hanlon said. "He has been a good leader this season."
Although the team is not taking its first round game lightly, there are several reasons to be optimistic. One of the most important is the improved play of Ingram, who has averaged 16 points a game over the past five games.
Against Lafayette, Ingram hit seven 3-pointers and scored 26 points, his highest total this season. On Tuesday, Ingram was named the PL Anaconda Player of the Week for last week. Yesterday he was named All-PL Second Team, his third consecutive PL postseason award.
"I don't know what it is about that gym," said Ingram, who has a career average of 31 points per game at Lafayette's Kirby Sports Center. "It definitely enhances my confidence. It's good to finally get some shots going down."
Although Ingram is AU's leading scorer this season with an average of 12.3 points per game, he has struggled at times offensively and his scoring average is the lowest of his career. Last season Ingram averaged 15.3 points a game, second best in the PL.
However, the Eagles hope Ingram's strong performance Saturday will carry over to the conference tournament.
"That's a big positive for Andre and for the team," Jones said. "That takes a big load off everyone else."
One of the main problems for the Eagles all year was avoiding the mental errors that lead to turnovers. In AU's loss to Holy Cross two weeks ago, the Eagles played well against a quality opponent, but were done in by turnovers. The Crusaders scored 16 points off turnovers, seizing back momentum every time the Eagles made a play.
Jones has been working all year to try to get the team to take better care of the ball. But even during AU's recent hot streak, the team has still been plagued by turnovers. At Lafayette, the team committed 20 of them, which Jones said made the game a lot closer than it should have been.
"I still believe that a majority of our turnovers are our mental mistakes," he said. "However, we can't lose our aggressiveness. We can't play being afraid of making a mistake."
Although the Eagles are still turning over the ball, one area that AU has improved in recently is defense, which Jones said has allowed the team to survive its mental mistakes. Against Navy, the Eagles turned over the ball 15 times, but only allowed six points off of turnovers.
One player who has been especially strong on defense is freshman guard Derrick Mercer. Although the 5-foot-9 Mercer almost always guards larger players, his aggressive play disrupts the other team's entire offense. On Wednesday, Mercer was named PL Freshman of the Year.
"Derrick defends extremely well," Ingram said. "It all starts with him at half-court because he defends the point guard."
Over the past two games combined, AU's opponents are shooting under 35 percent from the field, and the Eagles have won both games by double digits.
"What we have proven to ourselves is that we can be an effective defensive team," said Jones.
The Eagles are also looking forward to having some crowd support at the tournament, even though it's in Pennsylvania. The athletics department has teamed up with several student organizations, including the Student Government, to rent buses and pay for students' tickets.
"I think that will be great, we really feed off of the fan's energy," said Billbe, who added he expects the Bucknell crowd to be rooting against them. "Hopefully they'll be loud."
If the Eagles defeat Lafayette, they will play the winner of the Bucknell-Army game Sunday afternoon. The winner of that game would go onto face the winner of the other bracket, which is hosted by Holy Cross, at the home arena of the highest remaining seed Friday, March 8.
Eagle Staff Writer Adam Ross contributed to this story.
