Game Notes | Live Stats
PHILADELPHIA - The LIU women's basketball team hits the road this week, for the first game in a month-long road swing. The Blackbirds will be looking for their first win of the year in Philadelphia, Pa., as they take on Penn, Thursday, December 5 at 7 p.m. in the Palestra.
The road trip includes games in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Arizona. In January, LIU will play road games at Wagner and Mount St. Mary's, before taking on St. Francis Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, January 11. The next time LIU plays in the Steinberg Center will be January 13, 2014, against Central Connecticut State.
LIU is 0-6 to start the season, after dropping two games at the Turkey Classic. The Blackbirds hosted Georgia Tech, Southern Utah and McNeese State, in a two-day, four-team tournament following the Thanksgiving holiday. In the first game of the tournament, LIU dropped a 71-57 loss to McNeese State, and fell to Southern Utah, 57-44 in the consolation game last Saturday.
Seniors
Courtney Sullivan and
Cleandra Roberts led LIU in the two losses. In the McNeese State game, Sullivan went 4-for-9 from behind the arc, to score a career-high 16 points. Against Southern Utah, Roberts led the Blackbirds with 10 points and seven rebounds. Senior
Fanny Cavallo added nine points and two blocks, while sophomore
Sophie Bhasin had eight points for LIU.
ALL-TIME SERIES
• The Blackbirds have a 0-1 record against the Quakers all time. Last year was the first meeting between the two programs (Dec. 9, 2012), and Penn came away with the win, 54-40.
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Fanny Cavallo had a career-high nine rebounds in the loss, while Penn's then-junior Alyssa Baron has 17 points against the Blackbirds, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc.
SCOUTING PENN
• The Quakers (1-2) are off to a slow start this season, but have had some stiff competition in the early going. Penn lost to St. Francis Brooklyn in the season opener, 56-51, and the Terriers are 5-2 since then, with their only losses coming to St. John's and Miami. The other Penn loss came to #5 Notre Dame, 76-54.
• Most recently, the Quakers beat LaSalle, 64-54, for the program's first-ever win at Tom Gola Arena. Senior Alyssa Baron, who became the fourth player in program history to score 1,400 career points, had a team-high 23 in Penn's largest Big 5 win in 14 years. She had 14 of those in the second half as the Quakers pulled away.
• Baron leads Penn in scoring, with a 14.0 points per game average. Second on the team is Katy Allen, who's scoring 10.3 points per game, along with pulling down 5.3 rebounds per game.