SHERBROOKE, Que. – The Bishop's Gaiters women's basketball team will step onto the hardwood for the first time in 13 days on Friday night when the host the Laval Rouge et Or in RSEQ University women's basketball action. Following a bye week, the Gaiters will look to get into the win column in the friendly confines of Mitchell Gym on Friday before traveling to Quebec City on Saturday to complete the home-and-home series.
 
The task will not be simple for Bishop's (0-6); Laval is ranked eighth in the CIS. Under the guidance of first year bench boss Guillaume Giroux Laval has made noise across the country.  Despite dropping a pair of contests to McGill (5-1) a week ago Laval will travel to Lennoxville as the favourite for Friday night's game that is set to tip-off at 6 p.m. The foes will square off for the second time in as many nights on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the provincial capital.
 
This weekend's games will be the second and third meetings between Laval and Bishop's. On Nov. 21 the visiting Rouge et Or rolled to a 63-46 victory over the Gaiters.
 
Raphaëlle Côté (Quebec City) led all scorers with 18 points and she hauled in 11 rebounds to complete the double-double for Laval. She currently sits in seventh place in the conference in scoring averaging 12.4 points per game. Teammate Gabrielle Girard (Quebec City) scored just six points in that contest but is the team leader at 13.8 points per game through their first eight contests (tied for 2^nd in the RSEQ). She also is tops in the RSEQ from behind the arc, firing at a rate of 47.1 percent.
 
For Bishop's point guard Edith Noblecilla (Guayaquil, Ecuador) netted 13 points in November's loss. She unfortunately is not currently on the Gaiters roster due to personal reasons. The purple and silver will lean on a talented group of rookies to fill the void.  Leading the way is Ashley Milhomme (Repentigny, Que.) who had her CIS coming out party as the Gaiters opened the second part of the season against UQAM on Jan. 7 and 9.  Milhomme scored 19 and 16 points respectively in the two losses while playing 70 out of the total 80 minutes and earning Provigo, Robert Lafond, Bishop's Gaiters Athlete of the Week honours.
 
"Laval is a terrific team" said Gaiters coach Craig Norman. "They are well coached, are disciplined and play with a purpose. This will be a tremendous challenge for us but we are looking forward to it.
 
"Ashley improves every day," he added. "She's playing a lot of minutes but is poised to be a top level student-athlete in the CIS."
 
Bishop's is preparing to host the nation's eighth ranked team, the Laval Rouge et Or on Friday at 6 p.m. in Mitchell Gym before traveling to Quebec City for a re-match the next day at 5 p.m. Tickets for Friday's game are available at www.gaiters.ca/tickets.
 
Webcasts:
Friday: www.gaiters.ca/webcast
Saturday: https://www.youtube.com/user/RougeEtOr
 
Stay up-to-date with everything on the Bishop's Gaiters at www.gaiters.ca.

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