Jan. 2, 2007

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, PA - Carmen Bruce's career-best 24 points was not enough to hold off William & Mary (8-4), as the Tribe bested the Dukes 69-54 Tuesday night. The loss was the fifth in a row for the Red & Blue and dropped their season record to 5-8.

Also hitting double figures for Duquesne was Jocelyn Chandler with 12 points and Loui Hall with 10. Jade Singleton tied the game lead with nine rebounds and swatted a game-best three shots.

Kyra Kaylor led William & Mary with 20 points and nine rebounds. The win was the fourth in a row for W&M.

Just six minutes into the first half, William & Mary had built a 19-9 lead behind eight points from Kyra Kaylor. Duquesne responded with a 14-4 run in the next six minutes as Bruce supplied eight points for DU to tie the game at 23.

The Tribe quickly regained the lead going on an 11-5 run to lead 34-28 with 4:34 remaining in the first stanza. The Dukes finished the half strong, with a 6-2 mini-run to go into the half only trailing by two - 36-34.

Bruce scored 17 of her points in the first half on 8-11 shooting.

Bruce kept her hot hand as she drained a 3-pointer to open the second half and give DU its only lead of the game 29 seconds in (37-26). However in the next 12:14, the Dukes were on the short end of a 20-7 run, as they missed 15 of 17 shots. By then, they faced a deficit of 12 points (56-44), which would climb as high as 16 (64-48) with under two minutes remaining. The contest finished 69-54 as DU could only muster 20 second half tallies. DU converted only six of 31 attempts (.194) from the field in the second half compared to its 15-25 (.600) effort in the first frame.

William & Mary out-shot the Dukes .444 (24-54) to .375 (21-56) from the field for the game. The Tribe pulled down one more rebound (38-37) and had four more steals (9-5) than DU. Fourteen Duquesne turnovers yielded 18 W&M points.

Duquesne returns to action with its Atlantic 10 conference opener Jan. 9 when St. Bonaventure visits Palumbo. Tip-off time is 7:00pm.

Game Notes:
• Keri Pryor missed her third consecutive game with an illness
• Bruce's previous career high was 20 while playing for Georgetown vs. West Virginia Feb. 8, 2003
• The five game losing streak is the longest for the Red & Blue since they dropped six in a row from Jan. 25 to Feb. 10, 2005