GAME 9 | DUQUESNE (4-4) vs TEMPLE (4-3)
Sun. Dec. 5, 2021 • 1:00 p.m.
UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500), Pittsburgh, Pa.
TV: ESPN+

Duquesne and Temple have met 46 times - the seventh most common opponent for the Dukes.

Of the Dukes' 13 wins in the series, nine have come in Pittsburgh. Duquesne has won each of the past two contests with the Owls in the Steel City.

THE SERIES - vs. TEMPLE

• The Dukes and Owls are familiar foes from Temple's days as a member of the Atlantic 10.
• Duquesne has played Temple 46 times - the seventh most-common opponent in program history.
• Unfortunately, the Owls also rank fourth in program history for the most wins against the Dukes - 33.
• Temple won each of the first 16 meetings against Duquesne.
• The Dukes finally broke through in 1994 when they returned from a one-year stint in the Midwestern Athletic Conference (now known as the Horizon League). Duquesne's 79-55 win that season spurred a run of wins in 10 of the next 11 meetings through 2000.
• Since 2000, the Owls are 16-3 against the Dukes, including an 85-72 win in the last meeting in 2019.

LAST MEETING - Nov. 8, 2019

• The Dukes trailed by just three at halftime, but Temple outscored DUQ 48-38 in the second half to pull away for an 85-72 win in Philly.
• Both teams shots over 40 percent from the field, but the Owls held a sizable 41 to 28 advantage on the glass.
• Libby Bazelak led Duquesne with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from long range.
• Laia Solé poured in 14 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
• Temple's Mia Davis led the Owls with 26 points and 11 rebounds.

SCOUTING TEMPLE

• Temple enters the game with back-to-back wins over Villanova and Georgetown.
• The Owls erased an 11-point fourth quarter deficit in their 49-47 win over Georgetown this past Tuesday.
• Temple out-scored the Hoyas 22-9 in the final 10 minutes to rally back for the victory.
• Mia Davis registered her third double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
• Davis leads the Owls and ranks fourth in the American with 14.3 ppg.
• She also leads the AAC with a 49.4 percent field goal percentage.
• Davis was named the AAC Player of the Week on Nov. 22 after posting double doubles against St. John's and Bucknell. She was also named the AAC Preseason Player of the Year for the second-straight season.
• Aniya Gourdine is the regining AAC Freshman of the Week. She averaged 13.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in games versus Princeton and Villanova.
• Temple was picked to finish fifth in the American Preseason Coaches' Poll released ahead of the season.

DUQUESNE vs. THE AMERICAN

• The Dukes are 1-6 overall against teams from the AAC, including a 97-51 loss on March 21, 2016 to eventual-National Champion UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Duquesne's only win against a team from the American was a 54-53 victory over Temple on Jan. 2, 2018.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Dukes collected a 69-60 victory over Canisius Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
• DUQ was led by a pair of 19-point, six-rebound performances by both Precious Johnson and Fatou Pouye.
• Johnson was an efficient 8-of-9 from the field, while Pouye was 8-of-16 with four assists and two steals.
• Megan McConnell 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 was 22 of 35 (63 percent) on shots inside the arc and out-rebounded the Golden Griffins 37 to 27.
• The Dukes finished with a 38 to 20 advantage in points in the paint.

TAKING AWAY THE TOP OPTION

• Duquesne has held the leading scorers for Akron, Siena and Canisius below their season-average during their current three-game winning streak.
• Akron leading scorer Jordyn Dawson (24.0 ppg.) was limited to just four points on 1-of-11 shooting against the Dukes.
• Siena leading scorer Rayshel Brown (13.5 ppg.) was held to 11 points on a 5-of-14 performance from the field.
• Canisius leading scorer Dani Haskell (16.2 ppg.) finished with 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including zero made three-point field goals on seven attempts.

GUARDS ON THE GLASS

• Guards Libby Bazelak (5.9 rpg.) and Megan McConnell (5.4 rpg.) lead the team in rebounding through eight games.
• Bazelak posted 10 rebounds in the team's win over Siena. It was the seventh game of Bazelak's career with 10 rebounds or more and just the first in which she did not record a double-double.
• Bazelak followed that performance up with a game-high nine in the win over Canisius.
• McConnell has hauled in at least three rebounds in all eight games this season, including a career-high 13 in the win over Lafayette.

BENCH BOOST

• Fatou Pouye has provided a spark off of the bench for the Dukes this season.
• After averaging just 5.0 points as a starter in the first two games of the season at UCF and Tulsa, Pouye has come off of the bench and averaged 14.3 points in the past six games.
• The Western Kentucky graduate transfer currently leads the team with 12.3 ppg. and is shooting 52.6 percent from the field (40 of 76) and a team-best 38.9 percent from long range (7-of-18) this season.

APPROACHING A MILESTONE

• Laia Sole was 9-of-12 (75 percent) from the field in her 22-point outing in the team's win over Akron last week.
• Sole, who is just 12 points away from 1,000 for her career, was averaging 1.8 ppg. through four appearances prior to the game against the Zips.
• It was the ninth career game of 20 points or more for the native of Spain, and her first since she scored 23 at Kent State on Dec. 21, 2020.
• Sole has scored 670w points as a member of the Dukes. Before transferring to Duquesne, she was the 2016-17 America East Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman at Maine.
• She scored 318 points during her lone season with the Bears.

LIKE FATHER LIKE DAUGHTER

• Tess Myers ranks second on the Dukes in scoring with 11.4 ppg. and has nearly knocked down as many three-point shots through eight games this season (22) as she did during the entire 16-game 2020-21 season (25).
• She currently leads the A-10 and ranks 52nd in Division I with 2.75 three-point field goals made per game.
• Myers was just 1-of-5 from beyond-the-arc in the team's win over Canisius. It was the first time this season that she did not convert multiple treys in a single game.
• Tess's father, Joey starred at Duquesne from 1980-83 playing for two NIT teams. He scored 831 points as a career .455 shooter. The 6-8 forward was one of the top shooting big men in the Atlantic 10 and had the nickname "Sonar Joey Myers" for his range.
• He played in the pre-3-point era until his senior season, where he moved inside as one of the big men Duquesne had (5-13 3PT). He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in the eighth round (179th overall).

WELCOME BACK HALLE

• After missing each of the past two seasons, Halle Bovell made her season-debut for the Dukes vs. Pitt on Nov. 20.
• Prior to the game against Pitt, Bovell's last time on the floor in an actual game was on March 9, 2019 in an A-10 Championship Semifinal loss to Fordham at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
• She appeared in 32 games with nine starts for the Dukes in the 2018-19 season.
• Bovell went 987 days between appearances on the floor for the Dukes.

ONE MILESTONE DOWN

• Libby Bazelak became the first player since Paige Cannon in 2019 to reach 500 career rebounds when she pulled in the milestone board in the team's game versus Pitt in November.
• Bazelak, who currently ranks third all-time in school history with a .379 three-point field goal percentage, is only 97 points away from 1,000 career points.

LOCK DOWN D

• In three of their four wins, the Dukes have held opponents to under 50 points and won by double digits.
• Duquesne held an opponent to under 50 points just once during the 2020-21 season (George Mason) and did not win any games last season by double digits.