WASHINGTON – The No. 10 seed Gallaudet University women's basketball team will face No. 7 seed Lancaster Bible College this Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the first round of the United East tournament.
This will be the second meeting between the two schools this season. GU won, 63-50, at home on Jan. 13, as sophomore
Mackenzie Schirg (Factoryville, Pa.) led the way with a career game of 27 points and 14 rebounds.
Gallaudet (6-16) and Lancaster Bible (10-15) have played 25 times since the 2011-12 season. GU has won four straight over the Chargers and six of the last seven games dating back to the 2021-22 season. LBC holds a 17-8 advantage in the all-time series as the Chargers won the first 14 games in the series from 2011-18. The two teams have never met in the United East postseason.
Gallaudet, the defending United East champions, went 3-0 in last year's tournament to clinch its first conference title as a member of the UEC and received the conference's automatic bid into the 2025 NCAA Division III tournament.
The young Bison squad is led by a pair of first-year forwards/centers in
Natalie Greene (Houston, Texas) and
Kayla Debrow (Jacksonville, Fla.). Greene is one of the top players in the United East based on her averages for points (16.6), rebounds (9.4) in 16 games played. Debrow is second in the United East with 44 blocks and is second on the team with 186 rebounds (9.3 rebounds per game). Schirg is a third force for the Bison upfront as she averages 11.3 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward
Sophia Wascher (Noblesville, Ind.) brings strong grit to the frontcourt as she has tallied 123 rebounds (6.5 per game) to go with an 8.7 points per game average. Senior guard
Sunita Schmidjorg (Austin, Texas) and junior guard
Seanna Baird (Indianapolis, Ind.) will anchor the backcourt for the Bison as the pair combined for 114 assists and 63 steals this season. GU will need to cut down on the turnovers to improve its chances to advance to the quarterfinal round. The Bison average 27.4 turnovers per game but in its win over the Chargers they had a season low total of 13 turnovers.
Lancaster Bible is led by freshman guard Emily Wilson who leads the team in scoring with 312 points and a 12.5 points per game average along with 153 rebounds, 89 assists, 33 steals and 35 3-pointers. Junior guard Rachel Nolt (11.8 points per game) is strong on the glass as she leads the Chargers with 189 rebounds (7.6 rebounds per game). The Bison will need to watch out for senior forward Raven Hunter down in the post as she leads the team with 34 blocks to go with 155 rebounds and 212 points.
The Lancaster Bible Athletic Communications Office will be providing a live video stream of Wednesday's first round game here:
https://lbcchargers.com/sports/2019/9/5/chargers-sports-network.aspx along with live stats here:
https://lbcchargers.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary.
The winner of this first round game will advance to the quarterfinals and face No. 2 seed Penn College (19-6) on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m.
Also see:
