PITTSBURGH – The Duquesne women's basketball team collected a 69-60 victory over Canisius Wednesday night inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
 
The Dukes (4-4), winners of three in-a-row, were led by a pair of 19-point, six-rebound performances by both Precious Johnson (Helsinborg, Sweden/Marks Gymnasiekola) and Fatou Pouye (Kaolack, Senegal/Glasgow Christian Academy). Johnson was an efficient 8-of-9 from the field, while Pouye was 8-of-16 with four assists and two steals.
 
Megan McConnell (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) finished just shy of a double-double with nine points and a career-high 10 assists. The Dukes as a team finished with a season-best 20 assists on 27 made field goals.
 
Duquesne scored the first five points and led 7-2 four minutes into the contest. After Canisius (2-5) rallied to tie the game at 10 with 3:55 to play in the first quarter, the Dukes closed out the period with an 11-2 run, including nine-straight, to take a 21-12 lead into the first break.
 
Duquesne led 25-17 midway through the second quarter. The Dukes scored seven-straight, capped off by the first points of the season from Halle Bovell (Hamilton, Ontario/St. Mary's), to bump their lead to 32-17 with 2:37 to play until halftime. Duquesne eventually pushed its lead to 39-20 on a McConnell trey in the final minute, before Canisius answered with a triple of its own to send the Dukes into the half with a comfortable 39-23 lead.
 
The Golden Griffins managed to get their deficit trimmed down to 43-33 by the halfway point of the third quarter. Duquesne answered with a 14-5 run, capped off by a Johnson basket-and-one, to rebuild the lead to 19 at 57-38 with just over a minute to play in the period.
 
Although the Dukes' lead was trimmed down to 57-47 on three-straight three pointers by the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Duquesne manged to respond with a 9-3 spurt to push its advantage back to 66-50 with four minutes to play in the game. Canisius managed to string a few baskets together to draw within single digits late, before running out of time and allowing the Dukes to win their third-straight game.
 
The Dukes exercised their will in the low-block. Duquesne was 22 of 35 (63 percent) on shots inside the arc and out-rebounded the Golden Griffins 37 to 27. Duquesne finished with a 38 to 20 advantage in points in the paint.
 
Lydia Gattozzi led Canisius with 15 points off of the bench.
 
McConnell became the first Dukes player since 2020 to post 10 assists in a game. Amanda Kalin dished out 10 dimes on Jan. 11, 2020 against La Salle. Kalin registered a triple-double in that contest.

Bovell's second quarter three pointer was her first points in a game since March 9, 2019 in the A-10 Championship Semifinals against Fordham.

It is the first three-game winning streak for Duquesne since 2020. The Dukes closed out that regular-season with wins over Fordham and St. Bonaventure, before posting a victory in the opening round of the A-10 Championship over Rhode Island.

The Dukes are now 21-3 all-time versus teams from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), including wins in each of the past 13 games against teams from the league.
 
The Dukes return to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Sunday, Dec. 5 when it welcomes former Atlantic 10-foe Temple. The game is set for a 1 p.m. tip and will broadcast on ESPN+.