Every week on goduquesne.com, join us in reliving in some of the best moments of the 2019-20 Duquesne women's basketball season.
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The Dukes needed a win.
After falling to Kent State on a buzzer beater to begin the season at PPG Paints Arena on November 5, followed by a tough road loss to Temple just three days later on Nov. 8, the Dukes trekked up I-95 from the City of Brotherly Love to the Big Apple, looking ahead to matchup with Manhattan Jaspers on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The Dukes pulled up to its hotel the early afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 9 near the Meadowlands after the rather quick two-hour journey for its second of five consecutive games on the road.
Duquesne needed to find its identity, but first it had to find Draddy Gymnasium.
After a quick trip to see some sights of the city at an overlook and a late-lunch at Outback Steakhouse, The Dukes set out to Riverdale, N.Y. for a night shootaround. After maneuvering the city traffic and arriving at the scenic campus, all that was left was to find the arena.
After a few attempts and consulting a security guard, the bus crawled up a nearly hidden bus entrance on a hill. Duquesne's longtime bus driver, Sarge, had never made the trip to Riverdale, and frankly neither had the Dukes. Sunday's contest marked the program's first-ever meeting with Manhattan, either in Pittsburgh or New York.
After a successful practice, the Dukes felt prepared. Both to find the gym the and to earn its first win of the season the following day.
Manhattan fell to Stony Brook in its season opener the previous Friday on Long Island by just five points. Stony Brook would go on to win 28 games including an NCAA-long 22-game winning streak during the 2019-20 season. Both teams sought its first check in the win column that Sunday afternoon.
After warmups, the Jaspers retired the jersey of its all-time leading scorer, Sheila Tighe, who jersey number was unveiled and now hung in the rafters, setting the stage for Manhattan's home opener in the Bronx.
The ball was eventually tipped, and despite playing its third game in just six days to begin the season, it was Duquesne that first gained separation on the scoreboard.
With Duquesne leading 13-12 in the first quarter, the Dukes put together a 8-0 run to extend its lead to 21-12 with 2:24 remaining in the opening quarter. The Jaspers cut the deficit to five, but Anie-Pier Samson converted a free throw with less than a minute left, as the Dukes led the Jaspers 22-16 after the first 10 minutes.
After the Dukes extended its lead to 15 points at 34-19, the Jaspers finished the half on a 15-4 run for a halftime score of 38-34.
The Dukes looked to avoid a similar fate than it faced in the season-opener. The Kent State Golden Flashes trailed by as much as 13 points and stunned Duquesne in its first-ever game at PPG Paints Arena with a floater as time expired.
The Dukes would not allow that this day. The third quarter showed that Duquesne could not only put up impressive numbers offensively (Despite an 0-2 record, the Dukes scored 75 and 72 points in its first two games), but could dominate a game on the defensive end.
In the third quarter, Duquesne allowed Manhattan to convert 1-of-12 field goal attempts in the frame, jumping on the Jaspers by outscoring Manhattan 17-6 and taking a 55-40 advantage after three quarters.
Duquesne held a double-digit lead the entire fourth quarter, and brought its first victory of the season 376 miles on a bus back to the Bluff by a score of 76-65.
Libby Bazelak and Angela Staffileno powered Duquesne to victory on the offensive end. Both recorded 21 points, which was a career-high game for Staffileno. The redshirt-senior from West Virginia drained 3 triples and converted 6-of-7 attempts from the free throw line.
Despite graduating three of the top-20 scorers a season ago and losing a senior class that was responsible for 5,059 career points, the Dukes' offense has not missed a beat during its first three games, averaging 74.3 points per game, compared to a mark of 65.3 the Duquesne averaged in 2018-19.
Bazelak, who averaged 7.4 ppg, while shooting at a 39.8% clip from the field and sunk 33.7% of her attempts from 3-point land as a sophomore during the 2018-19 seasons had stepped up to average 16.7 ppg, and shoot 62.5% and 64.3% from 3-point land over the course of the first three games of her junior season. A sign of things to come for the Kettering, Ohio product.
After traveling home to the Steel City that Sunday night, the Dukes would soon have to gear up for an eerily similar trip to battle another MAAC foe from the Empire State in Iona on Friday, Nov. 15, before heading to the Lehigh Valley to face Lafayette in Easton, Pa. on Sunday, Nov. 17.
Stay tuned to goduquesne.com for more memories of the 2019-20 @DuqWBB campaign in the coming weeks.
