GAME 13 | DUQUESNE (5-7) at RICHMOND (9-4)
Sat. Jan. 1, 2022 • 4:00 p.m.
Robins Center (7,201), Richmond, Va.
TV: ESPN+

The Dukes are 13-24 in Atlantic 10 openers all-time, including a 5-3 mark under Head Coach Dan Burt.

Duquesne and Richmond have never met in an A-10 opening game.

HOW TO FOLLOW

• The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
• Live stats are available here.
• Follow @DuqWBB on Twitter and Instagram for in-game updates.  

THE SERIES - vs. RICHMOND

• The Dukes and Spiders have met annually since Richmond joined the Atlantic 10 in 2001.
• Although Richmond leads the all-time series 14-12, the Dukes have held the upper hand recently, winning eight of the last 10 meetings.
• The Spiders won 12 of the first 16 meetings between the two schools from 2001-12, however Duquesne won each of the next eight games, including a 48-47 victory in the WNIT in 2015.Richmond has won each of the past two contests by a combined margin of five points, including a 67-64 overtime win in 2020.

LAST MEETING - Jan. 10, 2021

• Richmond pulled out an 80-78 win last season at La Roche's Kerr Fitness Center.
• Megan McConnell had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but did not convert a contested layup as time expired.
• McConnell finished with a career-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists.
• Both Laia Sole (17 points) and Diamond Bragg (15) reached double figures, while Tess Myers added nine points.
• The Spiders were 13 of 26 from long range, with nine different players converting a trey.
• Addie Budnik led Richmond with 18 points and six rebounds in the win.
• The contest featured 14 lead changes.

SCOUTING RICHMOND

• The Spiders enter on a five-game winning-streak, including a convincing 90-50 win over Coppin State this past Wednesday.
• Richmond is leading the A-10 in assists (16.8), three-point field goals (10.2) and blocked shots per game (6.2), as well as field goal percentage (45.8).
• The Spiders have highest scoring offense in the league (74.9 ppg.) and rank third in the NCAA with 131 three-point field goals and also 82 blocked shots this season.
• Richmond features four players who average double figures, including Addie Budnik, who slots 12th in the A-10 with 13.8 ppg. and is shooting 53.9 percent from the field to rank third in the league.
• Budnik also ranks second in the A-10 and ninth in the nation with 3.23 blocks per game.
• Grace Townsend leads the league and slots 24th in Division I with 5.6 assists per game.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Dukes are playing for the first time in two weeks after their scheduled contest with Cornell for Dec. 21 was canceled due to Covid-19 concerns within the Big Red program.
• Duquesne was defeated 68-60 by Penn State in its last action on Sat., Dec. 18.
• The Dukes were led by a 21-point effort from Tess Myers. She knocked down 7-of-14 from the field, including 5-of-8 from downtown in the setback.
• Fatou Pouye added 12 points, while Megan McConnell led the team on the glass with 11 rebounds to go along with seven points, six assists and three steals.
• The Dukes trailed 59-49 after three quarters, but scored 10-straight points to start the fourth quarter to knot the game up.
• Duquesne was held without a field goal for final five minutes of the game, allowing Penn State to out-score the Dukes 9-1 down the stretch to secure the win.
• Penn State's Makenna Marisa finished with 33 points on 12 of 27 shooting.
• The 33 points matched the most points scored by an individual player against Duquesne during Dan Burt's tenure as head coach. Former UConn All-American Katie Lou Samuelson dropped 33 on the Dukes on Dec. 22, 2017.

COMMON OPPONENT

• The Dukes and Spiders have each made the trip to Farmville, Virginia to take on Longwood this season.
• Duquesne erased a 19-point deficit to the Lancers, but came up short 77-76 on Nov. 17.
• Megan McConnell's potential game-winning shot at the buzzer rimmed out to allow Longwood to hold on for the win.
• Richmond led by as many as 24 points in its 83-70 victory over the Lancers on Dec. 15 at Willett Hall.
• Longwood's two-time All-Big South guard Kyla McMakin, who dropped 28 versus the Dukes, was limited to 11 points on a 4-of-20 performance from the field against the Spiders.

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR

• The Dukes are playing for the fourth time in program history on New Year's Day and the first time since 2017.
• Duquesne is 1-2 in games on Jan. 1 all-time.
• The Dukes rang in 2014 with a 73-65 win over St. Bonaventure, but were defeated by George Washington in 2017 (75-40), and Pitt (62-57) in 2000.

CLOSE ONLY COUNTS IN HORSESHOES

• The Dukes are winless in the six games in which they trailed heading into the fourth quarter.
• Duquesne erased second half deficits of 19 points at Longwood and 10 points versus Penn State, but came up short late in each of those games.
• The Dukes trailed by as many as 13 in the third quarter at Kent State, before drawing back to within one with three minutes to play in that game. Kent State held on for a five-point win. 

MAGIC NUMBER

• The Dukes have won all five games in which they held their opponent to under 66 points this season.
• Duquesne is winless when it allows 67 or more points.

A-10 ANNOUNCES POSTPONEMENTS, ADJUSTMENTS

• The A-10 announced Tuesday that the following four games scheduled for the opening day of conference play on Jan. 1 would be postponed: Fordham at Davidson; George Mason at UMass; VCU at La Salle; Dayton at Rhode Island.
• The league also announced a revised COVID-19 policy, which allows for postponed games to rescheduled or declared a "no-contest" in the event that a suitable date cannot be found.    

DECEMBER TO REMEMBER

• Tess Myers has averaged 19.3 over the team's past three games.
• She scored all of her career-high 23 points in the second half of the team's win over Saint Francis on Dec. 11.
• Myers followed that performance with 21 points in the team's most recent game against Penn State on Dec. 18.
• Her back-to-back 20-point games are the first by a Dukes' player since Chassidy Omogrosso scored 20 or more in three-straight games near the end of the 2019 season.
• She ranks second on the Dukes in scoring with 12.4 ppg. and has knocked down more three-point shots through 12 games this season (36) than she did during the entire 16-game 2020-21 season (25).
• Myers leads the A-10 and ranks 23rd in Division I with 3.0 three-point field goals made per game.
• She also ranks second in the A-10 with a 40.4 three-point field goal percentage.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

• 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).

BENCH BOOST

• Fatou Pouye has provided a spark off of the bench for the Dukes.
• 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 15.5 points through the team's past 10 games.
• Pouye posted her fourth-career 20-point game when she scored a career-high 31 points in a loss at Kent State on Dec. 8. It was her second 20-point game this season and first game with over 30 points.
• The Western Kentucky graduate transfer currently leads the team and ranks 12th in the A-10 with 13.8 ppg.
• Pouye is shooting a team-best mark of 49.6 percent from the field (63 of 127) and slots second with a 38.7 three-point field goal percentage (12-of-31) this season.

GUARDS ON THE GLASS

• Guards Megan McConnell and Libby Bazelak lead the team in rebounding with 6.1 and 5.7 rpg., respectively.
• McConnell has hauled in at least three rebounds in all 12 games, including a career-high 13 in the win over Lafayette. She has had three games with 10 or more rebounds this season.
• Bazelak posted a season-high 10 rebounds in the team's win over Siena. She has finished with five or more rebounds in eight times this season.

DO IT ALL MCCONNELL

• In addition to rebounds, Megan McConnell leads the team in both assists and steals per game and ranks third in scoring.
• She slots fourth in the A-10 with 4.8 assists per game.
• McConnell leads the league and ranks 38th in the nation with 2.7 steals per game.
• The Chartiers Valley product also ranks third on the team with 9.3 ppg.

ROAD WOES

• Duquesne is 1-4 when playing on the road this season.
• After losing by double-digits at UCF and Tulsa to open the season, the Dukes were defeated by one point at Longwood and five points at Kent State in closely contested games.
• Duquesne's lone victory on the road was a 59-49 win at Siena in which it committed a season-high 26 turnovers.

DOUBLE DOUBLES

• A Dukes player has notched a double-double three times this season, including two already by guard Megan McConnell.
• McConnell posted 13 points and 10 rebounds versus Temple on Dec. 5, after registering her first-career double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds on Nov. 14 versus Lafayette.
• She was just one-point shy of a third double-double when she finished with nine points and a season-high 10 assists versus Canisius on Dec. 1.
• Fatou Pouye notched her first double-double with the Dukes and fourth overall when she finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds at Longwood on Nov. 17.
• Duquesne players only had two double doubles during the entire 2020-21 season.

SOLE 1K

• Laia Sole scored her 1,000th career point in the team's loss at Kent State on Dec. 8.
• Sole has scored 695 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.
• Sole is only 16 rebounds away from reached 500 for her career.

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 is currently tied for second all-time in school history with a .382 three-point field goal percentage, is only 62 points away from 1,000 career points.

LOCK DOWN D

• In three of their five 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.