TERRACE HOTEL THANKSGIVING CLASSIC (HOSTED BY FLORIDA SOUTHERN)
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GANNON GOLDEN KNIGHTS (2-0, 0-0 PSAC) vs. LYNN FIGHTING KNIGHTS (1-2, 0-1 SSC)
DATE/TIME: Friday, November 26, 2021 | 12:00 noon
LOCATION/ARENA: Lakeland, Fla. | George Jenkins Field House
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GANNON GOLDEN KNIGHTS (2-0, 0-0 PSAC) at FLORIDA SOUTHERN MOCS (1-2, 0-1 SSC)
DATE/TIME: Saturday, November 27, 2021 | 2:00 p.m.
LOCATION/ARENA: Lakeland, Fla. | George Jenkins Field House
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THE ALL-TIME SERIES
Gannon will meet Lynn University and Florida Southern College for the first time in program history this weekend in Lakeland, Florida.


ERIE, Pa. – The eighth-ranked Gannon women's basketball team spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in sunny Florida yesterday and will return to the court on Friday afternoon with a pair of games at the 2021 Terrace Hotel Classic hosted by Florida Southern University in Lakeland, Florida.
 
This week, Gannon jumped one spot to No. 8 in the WBCA National Poll after a 2-0 start to the season with home wins over Bluefield State (Nov. 13) and Lake Erie (Nov. 21). The Golden Knights also moved up three spots this week in the D2SIDA National Media Poll. Gannon ranked ninth (WBCA) and 13^th (D2SIDA) in the preseason edition of each poll.
 
Gannon opened the season with a 22-point win over Bluefield State (74-52) on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the Hammermill Center. Samantha Pirosko (Eastlake, Ohio/Eastlake North) paced Gannon in the season-opening win with 28 points and 10 rebounds. It was Pirosko's third-straight double-double as the sophomore shot 9-of-13 from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line after a dominating performance in the paint. Delaney Dogan (West Middlesex, Pa./West Middlesex) joined Pirosko in double-figures with 11 points in the home opener after shooting 5-of-6 from the field. In all, nine Golden Knights scored and Gannon shot 47.4 percent from the field.
 
This past Sunday against Lake Erie, Gannon faced a 13-point third-quarter deficit before rallying for a 12-point come-from-behind win. Gannon ended the third quarter on a 14-5 scoring run and continued to roll by outscoring the Storm 26-10 in the fourth quarter. Margo Loutzenhiser (Russell, Pa./Warren Area) paced Gannon's third-quarter scoring run with eight points and two assists during the stretch.
 
Pirosko once again led Gannon in the win over Lake Erie with 19 points, five rebounds and four steals. Loutzenhiser (12), Emma Wright (Fairview, Pa./Talawanda) (11) and Tori Obenrader (Fryburg, Pa./North Clarion) (11) also reached double-figures for the Knights. Pirosko, Obenrader and Wright combined for 18 of Gannon's 26 fourth-quarter points in the win. The Golden Knights shot 42.6 percent from the floor and made 20-of-25 attempts from the free throw line in the win over the Storm.
 
Through two games this season, Gannon has five players averaging at least seven points per game this season, led by Pirosko at 23.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per outing. Pirosko ranks fifth in NCAA Division II in scoring this season. Wright (9.5), Dogan (8.5), Obenrader (8.5) and Loutzenhiser (7.0) have also been key to the GU offense so far this season. Gannon is shooting 45 percent from the field and is out-rebounding opponents by 10 this season.
 
Gannon also ranks eighth in the country in free throw percentage this season, shooting 83.7 percent from the stripe through two games this season.
 
After wrapping up play in Florida on Saturday, Gannon will return to Erie and prepare for PSAC play, which will begin on Friday, Dec. 3 with a PSAC East roadtrip to Shepherd and Shippensburg on back-to-back days.

 
EIGHTH-RANKED GANNON FACES HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Gannon was recently chosen the preseason favorite in the PSAC West, edging Indiana (Pa.) in the Coaches' Preseason Poll. Gannon and IUP each received four first place votes, but the Lady Knights received more overall points. Several days later the WBCA Division II Preseason Top 25 was released, with Gannon landing ninth in the rankings. The preseason D2SIDA Top 25 placed the Golden Knights 13th, along with second to IUP in the Atlantic Region. In the first set of regular season rankings that were released on Tuesday, Nov. 23, Gannon ranked No. 8 by the WBCA and jumped in at No. 10 in the D2SIDA National Top 25.
 
WRIGHT ENTERS 14TH SEASON AS GANNON'S HEAD COACH
Cleve Wright is in his 14th season as Gannon's head coach, and 19th overall as a head coach. He is actually in his second stint at Gannon. He enjoyed tremendous success while guiding the Lady Knights from 2002-13, posting a 233-100 record with five NCAA Tournament appearances and a PSAC title. After four seasons as the head coach at Miami (Ohio) and another two years as the associate head coach at Eastern Illinois, Wright returned to Gannon in 2019-20. He guided GU to a 25-6 ledger in his return, with the Lady Knights defeating seventh-ranked IUP, 50-40, in the PSAC Championship game. On the eve of hosting half of the bracket of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional, the pandemic shut everything down. Wright owns an overall record of 308-194 and is 273-107 at Gannon.
 
PIROSKO LEADS GANNON IN SCORING AGAINST BLUEFIELD STATE, LAKE ERIE
Pirosko opened the 2021-22 campaign as she finished 2020-21 – with a double-double. The 5'10" sophomore ended last season with back-to-back double-doubles, and she made it three in a row after scoring 28 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in the season-opening win over Bluefield State. Pirosko made 9-of-13 field goals and went 10-of-11 at the line. Four of her 10 rebounds were on the offensive glass. Pirosko emerged as the leading scorer a year ago after Tori Obenrader (Fryburg, Pa./North Clarion) went down with an injury, averaging 15.9 ppg., adding 6.0 rpg., and shooting an impressive 60.0 percent from the floor (87-of-145).  She scored in double figures in the final 12 games this past winter and led GU in scoring nine times and in rebounding on five occasions. She scored 19 points to lead four Knights in double-figures this past Sunday against Lake Erie.
 
WELCOME BACK TORI
Gannon's leading scorer and rebounder in 2019-20, Tori Obenrader (Fryburg, Pa./North Clarion) missed the last nine games of the 2020-21 season with a knee injury. She was averaging 12.6 ppg. and 7.0 rpg. at the time after showing figures of 16.9 ppg. and 8.2 rpg. in '19-20. The 5'11" junior made her return to the hardcourt vs. Bluefield State, playing 14 minutes. She finished with six points and six rebounds. She scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds on Sunday against Lake Erie.

Obenrader was a first team All-PSAC West selection in 2019-20 and the MVP of the PSAC Tournament, in addition to being named the 2018-19 PSAC West Freshman of the Year. She currently has 850 career points and 513 career rebounds. 
 
LITTLE CHANGE TO ROSTER
Virtually the entire roster from this past winter returns. In fact, head coach Cleve Wright welcomes back 13 players, and has three players who were available for little or no time this winter. Obenrader would only play in the first five games, while Boston McKinney (Bolivar, Ohio/Tuscarawas Valley) for the final six games after an injury forced her to miss the first eight contests last spring. After handing out 138 assists while starting all 31 games in 2019-20, the senior guard was only able to play limited minutes and totaled seven assists. Junior guard Ali Benim (Erie, Pa./Harbor Creek) (Erie, Pa./Harbor Creek) also returns after sitting out the 2020-21 season.
 
QUARTET OF DOUBLE-FIGURE SCORERS RETURN
In addition to Pirosko and Obenrader, Sydney Mitchell (Halethorpe, Md./Seton Keough) and Emma Wright (Fairview, Pa./Talawanda) also scored in double figures in the winter. Mitchell, a 5'11" senior, had started 76 straight games, and 78 in her career, before sitting out the season opener against Bluefield State. She averaged 10.6 ppg last season. Wright, a transfer from Grand Valley State in her first season at Gannon, also came in at 10.6 ppg. while adding 4.9 rpg. The 5'11" graduate student, who is the daughter of Cleve Wright, led Gannon with 24 3-pointers on 60 attempts.
 
TOUGH EARLY-SEASON SLATE
The schedule-makers didn't do Gannon any favors to start the season. After opening at home with Bluefield State and Lake Erie, the Lady Knights will spend Thanksgiving in the Terrace Hotel Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Florida Southern. They face Lynn on November 26, then the next day take on a Florida Southern team that was 19-11 in 2019-20. The Mocs were selected to compete in the NCAA South Regional, which was canceled due to the pandemic. PSAC play begins a week later. Gannon opens with the top two teams in the Eastern Division preseason poll. GU visits preseason favorite Shepherd on December 3, then heads to Shippensburg the next day. Both teams were 21-9 in 2019-20. Gannon eliminated the Raiders in the PSAC semifinals by a 74-58 score that season.
 
WRIGHT ADDS FORMER KNIGHT BATTS, BRAUN AS ASSISTANT COACHES
Cleve Wright added a pair of assistant coaches to his staff late this summer. His staff is now comprised of former Gannon standout Brittany Batts, plus Allison Braun, who was a standout at McDowell High School. Batts played for the Lady Knights from 2011-15, currently ranking 20th in career scoring with 1,152 points while appearing in 125 games. She holds the top two season figures for 3-pointers made with 102 in 2012-13 and 93 in 2013-14. She ranks second in career 3-pointers made (286) and attempts (688) and is fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.416). Batts helped lead the Lady Knights to a 102-24 record and four NCAA postseason appearances. She has already worked as an assistant coach at the Division I, II, and III levels while in the early stages of her coaching career. She joins the Lady Knights after working as an assistant at Division I Chicago State last year. Prior to that, she was a member of the Shepherd coaching staff in 2018-19 and 2019-20.  She began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Castelton University in 2015, then moved on to Bridgewater College (Va.) in 2017-18.

Braun joins the Gannon staff after serving as an assistant coach at SUNY Cortland the last three years. During the 2019-20 season she was part of Cortland's coaching contingent that was named the SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year. The Red Dragons finished 22-7, advanced to the finals of the SUNYAC tournament, earned an NCAA Division III tournament at-large bid. Braun played four years at Division I Canisius College from 2009-13. She was voted as the team's Most Valuable Player by her teammates in both her junior and senior years. Braun appeared in 108 career games, with 53 starts.
 
GU SIGNS PAIR OF RECRUITS
Cleve Wright and his staff signed a pair of recruits to national letters of intent recently, grabbing both from the Buckeye state. Briana Claxon is a 5'7" guard from South Webster (Ohio) High School, while Andrea Maibach is a 6'2" forward from Norwayne (Ohio) High School. Claxon is a two-time All-Ohio selection who averaged 24.4 ppg. as a junior. Maibach has led Norwayne in rebounding the last two years, with a 23-3 finish a year ago.