American University wrapped up the regular season with a 76-69 victory over the Lafayette Leopards at Bender Arena Saturday afternoon.
The win enabled American to finish its season at 19-10 overall (10-4 in the Patriot League), good enough to wrap up the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Patriot League tournament, behind first overall seed Bucknell and No. 2 seed Lehigh. The Eagles will host sixth-seeded Army in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League tournament at Bender Arena Wednesday evening. Tip-off of that game is at 7:30 p.m.
Charles Hinkle was once again the star for the Eagles Saturday afternoon, scoring 25 points, 17 of which came in the second half. But American made the game's decisive blow the first half, breaking an early 9-9 tie by going on a 24-4 run to take a 33-13 lead. The visiting Leopards needed to go on a 7-0 run to go into halftime trailing by just 36-22.
Lafayette mounted a further rally in the second half, cutting American's lead to 5 on three separate occasions. But each time, the Eagles were able to respond with either foul shots or a basket, and the Leopards eventually ran out of time.