PITTSBURGH -  Laia Sole scored 14 points off the bench in her first game at the Palumbo Center as Duquesne used a big 1st quarter to defeat Mount St. Mary's 73-64 on Monday night. Chassidy Omogrosso scored 14 and Nina Aho added 10 for the Dukes (1-2). Sole was one rebound shy of a double-double.
 
The Mountaineers (1-2) were led by Jatarrikah Settle, who had a game-high 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Juliette Lawless and Michaela Harrison each scored 17 and Rebecca Lee grabbed 10 rebounds for MSM.
 
Duquesne won the opening tipoff and immediately got on the board with Libby Bazelak's jumper. The teams would exchange baskets twice before the Dukes ended the quarter on a 20-0 run. Midway through the run, Aho, Omogrosso and Bazelak hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers. At the end of the first 10 minutes, seven different Dukes scored at they built a 27-4 lead.
 
Kadri-Ann Lass' free throw opened the 2^nd quarter and gave Duquesne its largest lead of the game at 24 points.
 
The Dukes led 38-18 heading into halftime.
 
The Mount held Duquesne to 4-of-14 shooting and were able to grind the deficit down to nine points with 43 seconds remaining in the 3^rd quarter.
 
With 8:09 remaining in the 4^th quarter, the Mountaineers made it a two-possession contest after Daly Sullivan's 3-pointer. However, Duquesne answered with a pair of Paige Cannon layups sandwiched between Omogrosso's free throws making the score 62-50 at 5:43. The Mount would get no closer than seven points of tying the rest of the way.

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GAME NOTES

• Lass passed Lynn Dee Howell and Mauren Major to move into 26th place on Duquesne's all-time scoring list with 1,037 points
• The Dukes improve to:
  • 31-15 in home openers
  • 23-8 in Palumbo home openers
  • 38-14 against the Northeast Conference
  • 5-2 against Mount St. Mary's
• Duquesne scored 26 points off 23 MSM turnovers
• The 27 points were the most 1^st quarter points for the Dukes since Nov. 30, 2017 against Saint Francis U
• Sole tied her career-high with a pair of blocks (Binghamton, 01/28/17)
• Aho made her first start since 01/21/17
• The Dukes had 17 second chance points to the Mountaineers 0