READING, Pa. -- The Albright women's basketball team looks to continue its winning ways when it hosts Hood on Tuesday (Feb. 17) at 6 p.m. inside the Bollman Center.
The Lions are 17-6 overall and have clinched the second seed in the Commonwealth Conference Tournament with an 11-3 conference mark. Stevenson is the top seed with a 20-2 overall record while being 14-0 in the conference.
Albright will return to the tournament for the first time since the 2008-09 season when it plays host to the third-seed in the conference in a semifinal game on Feb. 25 inside the Bollman Center. The opponent, and time of the game, have yet to be determined.
The Lions have two regular-season home games remaining on the schedule before it can focus on the Commonwealth Tournament. Albright faces Hood on Tuesday and then closes out the regular season with a 2 p.m. meeting against Alvernia on Senior Day.
Albright is in the midst of one of its most successful, and historical seasons, in program history. In December, head coach
Janice Luck became the all-time winningest coach in program history with her 137th victory, and junior forward
Kelecia Harris broke the school record for blocked shots in a career. On Saturday at Arcadia, the team set a new record when it defeated the Knights 71-68 for its 11th conference victory of the season surpassing the 2006-07 squad that finished with 10 league wins.
On Tuesday, senior
Jessica Venturelli will be making her 99th career start at Albright, placing her fifth all-time in games played. Venturelli has dished out 262 assists to move into second place in program history, and her 93 three-pointers is fifth all-time at Albright.
At Messiah on Feb. 11, Harris became only the fifth player in school history to score 1,000 career points and grab over 700 career rebounds. The junior has was named the Commonwealth Conference Player of the Week for the fifth time this season on Monday, after averaging 20.0 points and 15.0 rebounds per game in leading Albright to road wins at Messiah and Arcadia.
Harris has made 152 field goals this season, which leaves her only six made field goals away from the single-season record of 158 set by Nicole Buist during the 1988-89 season.
The Lions have recorded 17 victories for only the fourth time in program history, and it's the most since the 2008-09 team finished with a 17-10 record. The 2006-07 went 18-10 and the 2007-08 squad amassed a school-record 20 wins and made the program's lone NCAA appearance.
Albright currently leads the Commonwealth Conference in field goal percentage, field goal percentage defense, three-point field goal percentage, rebounds per game and rebounding margin. The Lions are second in the nation averaging 32.8 defensive rebounds per game.
Harris leads Albright in both scoring at (15.8) and rebounding (11.2) and ranks fifth nationally shooting 61.3 percent from the field.
The Lions have won three in a row after hanging on for a 71-68 victory over Arcadia on Saturday. Harris had 20 points and 17 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the season, and sophomore
Shannon Thomas added 18 points in the win.
In the first meeting at Hood on Jan. 17, Thomas scored a career-high 22 points and Harris added 15 points and 17 rebounds to lead Albright to a 68-60 victory. The Blazers ended the game with a 46-44 advantage off the boards marking just the fifth time the Lions had been outrebounded in a game, and the only time Albright has come away with a victory in a game in which it was outrebounded.
Hood is 5-18 overall with a 3-11 conference mark, but features the league's second-leading rebounder in Rachel Wiley who averages 11.5 rebounds per game and led the Blazers with 18 points and 14 rebounds in the first contest with Albright.
