Women's Basketball Hosts Loyola for League Title

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The top-seeded Army West Point women's basketball team faces No. 3 Loyola in the Patriot League championship game on Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m. at Christl Arena.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • CBS Sports Network
RADIO • 1420 WLNA-AM/1260 WBNR-AM
VIDEO • Patriot League Network
AUDIO • Knight Vision • GoArmyWestPoint.com
LIVE STATISTICS • sidearmstats.com/army/wbball • GoArmyWestPoint.com
GAME NOTES • Army Notes
TICKETS • Women's Basketball tickets
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_WBB

STORYLINES
Army faces Loyola in the Patriot League Championship to mark the first-ever postseason matchup between the programs. Army earned a trip to the Patriot League title game for the fifth time in team history after defeating No. 4 Lehigh, 76-46, on March 11.

Army shot 51.7 percent (30-of-58) versus Lehigh to mark its eighth 50 percent shooting game this year.

Senior Kelsey Minato led all players with 21 points, while classmate Aimee Oertner finished with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. The Black Knights outscored the Mountain Hawks 40-20 in the paint. Army reached 40 points in the paint for the third time this season (44 vs. Emerson, 48 at Holy Cross).

THE ARMY-LOYOLA SERIES
Army enters Saturday with six straight wins over Loyola and stands 7-4 all-time versus the Greyhounds. Army has defeated Loyola in all six games since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2013-14.

No. 1 ARMY WEST POINT (28-2) NOTES
• Army advances to the Patriot League Championship for the fifth time in team history, and for the first since the 2013-14 season.
• The Black Knights led by 10, 41-31, at halftime of Friday's game against Lehigh before outscoring the Mountain Hawks, 26-6, in the third quarter.
• Army made all seven of its three-point attempts in the period, while holding Lehigh to 1-of-10 shooting.
• Sophomore Janae McNeal also finished in double figures with 10 points, senior Jean Parker netted nine and freshman Madison Hovren added six points off the bench.
• The Black Knights have 28 wins on the year, one shy of the Patriot League record for total victories in a season, held by Lehigh's Class of 2009-10 (29 wins in 33 games).

No. 3 LOYOLA (16-15) NOTES
• Loyola will play in the Patriot League Championship for the first time since joining the conference in 2013-14.
• The Greyhounds defeated No. 2 Bucknell, 65-53, on March 11 at West Point.
• Senior Colleen Marshall netted 22 points to lead Loyola, while graduate student Steph Smith added 20.
• Marshall paces Loyola with 15.0 points per game through 31 contests this year.

PATRIOT LEAGUE POSTSEASON HONORS
Senior Kelsey Minato was named Patriot League Player of the Year for the third time in her career, as she also became the first player in league history to land on the All-Patriot League first team during all four years. Classmate Aimee Oertner was selected to the All-Patriot League second team and Janae McNeal was one of five players picked for the league's inaugural All-Defensive Team.

ARMY BY THE NUMBERS
4: Blocks Aimee Oertner needs to reach 95 blocks on the year and pass Pam Pearson's (USMA '86) team single-game record
18: Points Kelsey Minato needs to reach 726 for the season and pass her own team record for points in a season (725 in 2013-14)
19.7: Army's average number of wins under 10th-year head coach Dave Magarity
41.7: Army's three-point field goal percentage, which leads the nation
78.4: The program-record winning percentage of Army's senior class (98-27)

Women's Basketball Hosts Loyola for League Title

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Players Mentioned

Madison Hovren

Janae McNeal

Kelsey Minato

Aimee Oertner

Jean Parker

Army West Point Athletics