FORT WORTH, TEXAS – The 2018-19 Duquesne women's basketball season opened with a 61-48 defeat against TCU on Tuesday afternoon.
Nina Aho, who saw her first action since the 2017 season finale, led all Duquesne players with 10 points off the bench.
Laia Sole, playing her first game in a Dukes uniform, had nine points.
Paige Cannon led the Dukes with six rebounds.
TCU's Amy Okonkwo recorded a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jordan Moore had a game-high 22 points.
Duquesne came out of the gates cold, missing their first 10 shots from the field before a
Kadri-Ann Lass basket at the 3:07 mark of the 1
st quarter got the Dukes on the board. By then, TCU had already built a double-digit lead. Duquesne would add layups by Aho and Sole to make the score 12-6 at the end of the quarter.
A pair of free throws by
Conor Richardson at 6:41 of the 2
nd quarter got the Dukes within a point at 14-13 and a 3-pointer by
Libby Bazelak at 4:19 would keep it at a one possession game at 18-16. However, that was the last field goal Duquesne would make the rest of the quarter as the Horned Frogs took a 28-18 advantage into halftime.
The TCU lead would swelled to 19 points on Okonkwo's layup at 6:11 of the 3
rd quarter which made the score 40-21. But the Dukes would go on a 16-5 run to end the quarter trailing by eight points at 45-37.
Okonkwo opened up the 4
th quarter scoring with a 3-pointer and the Frogs would hold a double-digit lead the rest of the contest.
GAME NOTES
- Chassidy Omogrosso passed Kathy Ridilla to move into 11th place on Duquesne's all-time scoring list with 1,314 career points.
- The Dukes defense held Big 12 Preseason Honorable Mention Adeola Akomolafe to just two points in 21 minutes
- Duquesne's bench outscored TCU's 27-10
- Angela Staffileno and Halle Bovell also saw their first action since the last game of the 2017 season
- TCU scored 59 percent of its points in the paint
- Duquesne scored 21 points off of 19 TCU turnovers
- TCU received one vote in the preseason AP Poll
