Dec. 17, 2005

Box Score

Aiga Bautre (Riga, Latvia) led the game with 24 points, but it wasn't enough as the Dukes suffered a 77-61 fall to the visiting West Virginia Mountaineer Saturday night at the Palumbo Center. Loui Hall (Masontown, Pa.) added 11 points in the loss and Nicole Sinclair (Indiana, Pa.) grabbed a team-high six boards.

The Mountaineers had five players hit double digits led by Brittney Davis-White with 20 points. Chakhia Cole grabbed a game-best nine rebounds.

It was a closely played first frame with two ties and three lead changes before the visiting Mountaineers went on a 12-2 run to take a 24-14 lead at 8:41. The Dukes would get to within a seven point reach three times afterward with the last being a 21-28 deficit at 4:34 on a Hall lay-up. West Virginia would hold a 39-30 lead at the break. A key advantage in the half was WVU holding a 21-8 rebounding advantage. Both squads posted strong showings from the field in the first frame with the Dukes connecting on .522 (12-23) and Mountaineers hitting .484 (15-31).

West Virginia held on to its lead throughout the second stanza as the Dukes could not get closer than a 12-point reach (35-47) while the Mountaineers largest lead was 22 points (61-39).

Duquesne was able to shut down WVU's top scorers Meg Bulger (19.0) and Olayinka Sanni (14.8) who ended the contest with nine and 10 points respectively.

For the game, Duquesne shot .423 from the field (5-17 from the three) and .667 from the line. West Virginia on the other hand hit .491 from the field (4-13 From the three) and an impressive .808 (21-26) from the charity stripe. WVU held a 40-21 rebounding advantage.

The loss puts the Dukes at 3-5 overall while WVU improves to 5-2 on the season. The Dukes return to action this Wednesday as the host Robert Morris in a 7:05 pm in a non-conference bout at the Palumbo Center.