GBC Women’s Basketball Renews Rivalry With Lock Haven Sunday

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Goldey-Beacom College women’s basketball team will look to bounce back from its season-opening overtime loss to St. Thomas Aquinas when it goes on the road and renews its rivalry with Lock Haven University on Sun. afternoon at Thomas Fieldhouse.

There will be a free live webcast of the game courtesy of Lock Haven sports information. Fans can view the free webcast by visiting this link.

This matchup pits fourth-year head coach Jen Carleton’s up-and-coming Lightning squad against GBC’s former head coach and now current coach of the Eagles, Jennifer Smith.

Smith spent two years as head coach at Goldey-Beacom. In just two seasons with GBC she was able to turn the program around leading the Lightning to their most wins in a season (18) in school history in 2006-07. From the 2005-06 to 2006-07 seasons, she guided GBC to the third most improved overall record in all of Division II women’s basketball.

Like Carleton, she is now in her fourth season at Lock Haven and has guided the Eagles to steady improvement year-to-year. The 2009-10 season saw LHU more than double its season win-total from the previous year.

The Eagles are 1-0 this year heading into Sunday’s highly-anticipated matchup with Goldey-Beacom. They defeated the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference’s Post University, 64-59 back on Nov. 13 and will have had an entire week’s rest by the time they suit up to play GBC. Lock Haven’s Kristen Kudrick led the Eagles with a game-high 21 points.

The Lightning (0-1) lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the East Coast Conference’s STAC in their season-opener on Tues. night at the Jones Center. Free-throw shooting hurt GBC as they made just 46.7 percent from the stripe and missed crucial foul shots near the end of regulation.

GBC was led on Tues. night by its trio of sophomore forwards Akilah Sewell, Irene Hudson and Devonne Richardson. Sewell posted her first career double-double with career-highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds to go with three blocks and two steals, defensively. Hudson dropped in 15 points to go with eight rebounds (six on the offensive glass), and Richardson tallied eight points and pulled down a game-high 15 boards.

Sunday’s game will be the fifth all-time meeting between these two schools. Lock Haven owns a 3-1 advantage thus far, including a 64-50 victory in the last meeting on Dec. 18, 2008.

Carleton led the Lightning to the program’s only ever win against Lock Haven in her first year with GBC and Smith’s first year at LHU. The Lightning defeated Lock Haven and their former coach, 65-56 on Nov. 26, 2007. The Eagles had won both previous meetings before that on Nov. 24, 2002 and Nov. 22, 2003.