BEREA, Oh. - La Roche women's basketball heads to Baldwin Wallace to take on nationally ranked Chicago (#18) in the opening round of the NCAA D3 tournament. The winner of Friday's contest will take on either host Baldwin Wallace or Haverford; those teams are set to play at 7:00 p.m. LRU vs. Chicago is set to tip-off at 5:00 p.m.

Coverage

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La Roche (20-6)

AMCC Champions

• The Redhawks won their eigth conference title in dominant fashion last Saturday (2/29) at the Kerr, taking down Hilbert 88-69. LRU outscored the Hawks 29-13 in the fourth quarter to pull away. All five starters for LRU finished in double-digit scoring figures led by Senior standout Jenna Cole who finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. Saturday's AMCC Championship victory is the first for all 13 student-athletes of the La Roche women's basketball team. La Roche will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA national tournament.
• Jenna Cole and Ayanna Mazcyk were named to All-Conference team.

News and Notes

• A stunning three Redhawks were selected on the AMCC All-Conference teams, as announced by the conference Tuesday afternoon. Senior forward Jenna Cole was named to the first team. Cole has been selected all-conference every single season in her collegiate career (2x 1st team, 2x 3rd team). Junior guard Ayanna Mazyck, who transferred from a JUCO last season, shined in her first year as a Redhawk and was named the Defensive Player of the Year in addition to making the second team. Sophomore forward, Dasja Anderson, who was selected on the third team in 2019, jumped up to the second in 2020.
• La Roche is 19-1 over their last 20 games.
• LRU is 8-0 this season when shooting 50% or better from the field.
• The Redhawks have been hot from deep as of late, averaging 10.5 threes per contest over their last four games while shooting 42% from beyond the arc.
• The black and red have done an excellent job converting takeaways, averaging 10.3 steals per game over the last six contests.

Kamela Gissendanner

• Head Coach Kamela Gissendanner earned her sixth conference title in just seven seasons with the Redhawks last Saturday (2013-2017, 2020). The three time AMCC Coach of the Year is an incredible 12-1 in the AMCC postseason.
• The Redhawks have had an incredible six twenty win seasons under Coach Kam, who owns a career record of 152-38 (.800) at La Roche.

NCAA Tournament History

• The last time women's basketball played in the big dance was on Friday, March 3rd when they fell to Mass.-Dartmouth by a score of 71-64.
• LRU is 0-7 all-time at NCAAs
• The closest the Redhawks got to advancing to the second round was in 2015 when they lost to Eastern Mennonite by just one, 77-76.

Chicago (20-5)

• Chicago is nationally ranked at no. 18 according to D3hoops.com
• They are members of the University Athletic Association (UAA), the same conference as local Carnegie Mellon.
• The Maroons won the outright UAA title after edging out Washington St. Louis, 76-72.
• Chicago has averaged 73.6 points per game while holding their opponents to just 61.1
• UoC has four players that average between 10.4 - 14.0 points per game, led by Senior guard Mia Farrell
• Chicago is most deadly from deep, where they average 7.3 threes per game while shooting 34.7% from long range (30th in D-III)
• UChicago is great on the glass, reeling in over 40 rebounds per contest
• The Maroons also do a nice job distributing the basketball, averaging 12.9 assists per game and taking the basketball, averaging 10.4 steals per game.