Feb. 14, 2009

Box Score

AMHERST - Samantha Pollino scored a career-high 23 points in the Duquesne women's basketball team's 75-61 win over Massachusetts Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Dukes equal last year's win total with 15 and clinches a winning record in the regular season.

Kristi Little tied her career-high with 11 assists and scored 14 points for her first double-double of the season. Alex Gensler tied her career mark with 14 points and Keri Pryor also added 14 points for the Dukes who improved to 15-10 overall and 5-5 in Atlantic 10 Conference play.

Stefanie Gerardot scored a game-best 28 points for UMass who fell to 10-15, 3-7.

The Minutewomen started out on a 14-4 run in the game's first 4:33, with Gerardot scored 10 of those points. The Dukes answered with an 8-0 run, including a pair of 3-pointers from Eve Pyle in 1:18 to get within two points at 14-12.

UM would build their lead back to nine points before Alex Gensler scored eight straight points in just 41 seconds to cut the UMass advantage to one point at 23-22. Samantha Pollino followed with a jumper to give DU its first lead of the game 24-23 at the 6:35 mark of the half.

The lead would change hands a pair of times and the score would be tied twice before the Dukes would close out the first half on a 5-0 run. Little went coast-to-coast for a layup as time expired to give Duquesne a 39-34 lead at halftime

Duquesne opened up the second half on an 11-3 run to give them a 13 point advantage, 50-37. The Minutewomen would only get as close as nine points the rest of the way.

Next up for Duquesne will be St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night. The Dukes and Bonnies will tipoff at the Reilly Center in Olean, N.Y. at 7:00 p.m.

GAME NOTES

• The last time Duquesne had back-to-back 15+ wins in a season was in 2003 and 2004
  
• McConnell-Serio becomes the first DU women's head coach in the Division I era to post a winning regular season in back-to-back years
  
• Pollino's previous career-best was 22 points which she scored against Cornell earlier this season
  
• Little also dished out 11 assists last year at William & Mary