Jan. 25 2003

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

The Series

The series, which began last season when Richmond joined the Atlantic 10, is tied 1-1. The Dukes took an 89-78 victory at home last year while the Spiders won 95-61 in Virginia.

Game Time

The Dukes look to win their fourth-straight while Richmond hopes to rebound from a two-game losing skid this afternoon. Both teams played on the road this past Thursday with DU winning at St. Bonaventure and Richmond falling at La Salle.

About the Dukes

Duquesne improved to 10-7 overall, 3-3 in league play with a 79-75 victory at St. Bonaventure this past Thursday. The Dukes are led by Candace Futrell (19.4 ppg) and Beth Friday (15.0 ppg, 10.8 rpg) while Shiri Sharon adds a team and league-best 6.59 assists per game.

Head Coach Dan Durkin captured his 125th career victory with the win over St. Bonaventure. The win marked an end to the Dukes' four-game road losing streak.

About the Spiders

Richmond dropped its second-straight with a 62-74 loss at La Salle this past Thursday. Four Spiders average double figure scoring in Ebony Tanner (16.5), Kate Flavin (15.6), Amber Goppert (12.9) and Cammy Desmond (10.5). Flavin adds a team-best 10.5 rebounds per game.

Richmond leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring (73.3 ppg), scoring margin (+11.6), field goal percentage (.472), assists (19.18) and steals (11.29). The Spiders received votes in this week's USAToday/ESPN/WBCA Top 25 Coaches' Poll.

^ Redshirted 1999-2000 season
+ Redshirted 2001-2002 season

The Last Game ... Dukes vs. St. Bonaventure

Candace Futrell's 21 points led the Dukes to a 79-75 victory at St. Bonaventure this past Thursday in an Atlantic 10 match-up. Beth Friday added 16 points followed by Shiri Sharon's 10 points and game-best eight assists.

St. Bonaventure opened the game on a 6-0 run before Beth Friday sparked an 8-0 run for the Dukes to take an 8-6. The Bonnies knotted the game 10-10, but Duquesne rattled off a 13-2 scoring spree to take a 23-12 lead at 10:02. An 8-2 SBU run gave the host a 20-25 reach at: 6:34, but Nicole Sinclair's goal would give the Dukes a 27-20 cushion. St. Bonaventure would then out-scored the Dukes 8-4 for a 28-31 reach at the 4:32 mark before a 7-0 Dukes' run put them up 38-28 with 3:17 ticking. Duquesne held a 43-31 edge at the half.

Aiga Bautre's three-point goal put the Dukes up 53-39 with 15:05 to go in the game, and held a 60-49 margin with 9:04 ticking. The Bonnies then used a 12-2 run to cut the Dukes' lead to 62-61 with 5:33 left. The Dukes answered with a 9-3 run of their own led by Friday's four markers to take a 71-64 margin with 3:11 on the clock. The Bonnies would not get within three points thereafter.

The win gave Coach Durkin his 125th career victory.

Duquesne shot .509 (29-57) from the field and .429 (9-21) from the three-point arc. The Dukes out-rebounded the Bonnies 33 to 25 and recorded 24 points off of 19 SBU turnovers. St. Bonaventure shot .490 (25-51) from the field and .526 (10-19) from behind the arc.

Last Time vs. Richmond

Senior Tionda Jennings led all scorers with a career-high 22 points on Senior Day as the Dukes took an 89-78 victory over visiting Richmond Feb. 14, 2002 at the Palumbo Center. Beth Friday grabbed a game-best 20 rebounds to match her career high and the Duquesne Palumbo Center record. She added 20 points for her 30th career double-double. Also hitting double figures for the Dukes were Candace Futrell with 18 and Nikolina Pender with 10 points. Richmond was led by Amber Goppert with 21 points and Ebony Tanner with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Friday scored four of the Dukes' first six points as the Red & Blue held a 6-3 lead early in the first frame before a 10-1 Richmond run gave the Spiders a 13-7 lead with 14:58 remaining. Richmond grabbed their largest lead of the period on a lay-up at the 10:51 mark for a 19-11 edge. Duquesne then executed a 26-7 run over the final 10:25, including six points in the final :39, for a 37-26 lead at the half. The Spiders connected on just 21.2% (7-33) of their shots from the field to the Dukes' 42.4% (14-33) in the first frame.

Duquesne jumped to an 11-2 run in the opening minutes of the second half for a 48-30 lead with 16:15 on the clock. Richmond then sprang to an 11-3 drive of their own to get within a 41-53 reach with 12:57 to go, but would not get closer than an 11-point reach thereafter. Friday sparked a 9-1 run to give the Dukes a 66-47 advantage and their largest lead of the game at the 8:43 mark and the lead for good.

The Dukes out-rebounded the Spiders 54 to 42 and out-shot them .471 (32-68) to .348 (24-69) for the game.

Comparatively Speaking

Here is how Duquesne and Richmond compare statistically.

Durkin Hits 125

Tenth-year head coach Dan Durkin grabbed his 125th career victory on Thursday, Jan. 23 as the Dukes defeated St. Bonaventure 79-75 in Olean, NY. Durkin is 125-142 at Duquesne and on his career.

Friday the First; Sports Illustrated Appearance Coming

Beth Friday became the first Duquesne women's basketball player to grab 1,000 career rebounds with her second board at the 15:13 mark at Dayton Jan. 12. She posted a game-high 11 that Sunday and now has 1,050 over her not-yet-complete four seasons. She also has tallied 1,265 points, which gives her the distinction to be the first Duquesne and just the fourth Atlantic 10 player to register 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

Friday joins George Washington's Darlene Saar (1,809 pts, 1,139 rbs) who competed from 1992 to 1995 and Rutgers' Sue Wicks (2,655 pts, 1,135 rbs) who played from 1985 to 1988. Jen Butler of UMass hit the mark this year and had 1,255 points and 1,131 rebounds entering the week.

The Pittsburgh native quickly took over the top of DU's career rebounding list six games into the season. With 922 boards entering the Towson game, Friday needed just seven rebounds to surpass Kathy Ridilla's mark of 928. Ridilla, a Duquesne Hall of Fame inductee, also posted 1,312 points from 1986-89.

Friday will also challenge Ridilla's senior class rebounding mark of 279 boards. Thus far, Friday has bettered each class' rebounding title as she grabbed 297 as a freshman, 298 as a sophomore and 271 last year as a junior. And through 17 games this season, the Upper St. Clair High School grad has pulled down 184 rebounds.

Currently, Friday is in seventh place among the Dukes' all-time scorers. She needs 27 points to join Becky Oglvee in sixth place; Oglvee poured in 1,292 points (1983-86).

And, in an upcoming Sports Illustrated's, Friday's career rebounding and scoring feat will be listed among other top accomplishments from around the nation in SI's "Faces in the Crowd". Friday is slated to appear in the Feb. 10 issue, which will also be available on-line at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/

My Sharon-ah

Junior Shiri Sharon has been nearly perfect from the free throw line this season hitting 40 of her 52 attempts for an 76.9% accuracy. Her first miss was in the Pitt game where she was 7-8 overall from the charity stripe. She has five perfect games from the free throw line to date.

Sharon also leads the Dukes and the Atlantic 10 with her 6.59 assists per game average. She dished out 12 assists in the Dukes' loss at Xavier marking a career high and a league single-game best. It was also the first time since Jan. 15, 1994 that a Duquesne player recorded 12 or more assists. The DU single-game mark is 15 set by Michelle Bouldin back on that date in 1994. Sharon also recorded 10 assists vs. James Madison.

Her season total is 112 entering Sunday's contest. The Israeli native moved into fifth place in the St. Bonaventure win, passing Kathy Folk who gave out 421 assists (1979-82). Sharon also has 662 career points.

Next Up

The Dukes host Dayton (9-7, 2-3) next Sunday, Feb. 2, in a 2:00 pm Atlantic 10 tip-off. The game can be heard over the internet at RedZoneMedia.com with Alex Panormios and Tad Maurey again providing the play-by-play.