PITTSBURGH – The Dukes were dealt a 67-57 loss by league-leading Rhode Island Wednesday evening inside the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
 
Duquesne (6-11, 1-4 A-10) was led by a team-high 11 points from Tess Myers (Lower Burrell, Pa./North Catholic). Myers was 4-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-6 from long range. Five Dukes scored eight points, apiece, including Libby Bazelak (Kettering, Ohio/Bishop Alter), who posted a balanced line with team highs of six rebounds and seven assists.
 
The Dukes got off to a fantastic start. Duquesne made five of its first nine attempts to open up an 11-2 lead at the seven minutes into the contest. Rhode Island (14-3, 4-0 A-10) finally started to find rhythm on offense and managed to close the gap to two, 11-9, by the end of the opening quarter.
 
A trey by Precious Johnson (Helsinborg, Sweden/Marks) to open the second quarter rebuilt the lead to five, but an 11-2 run for the Rams put the Dukes in a 20-16 hole with 6:43 to play until halftime. Duquesne managed to reclaim the lead on a basket by Laia Sole (Igualada, Spain/IES Joaquim Blume) at 23-21 with 3:46 left in the second quarter. Rhode Island countered with a 10-2 spurt over the next three minutes to jump in front, before a Myers trey at the horn made the score 31-28 heading into halftime.
 
The Duquesne deficit reached 38-30 four minutes into the second half. The Dukes responded with a 12-2 run, capped off by a Myers three pointer, to take a 42-40 lead with 2:46 to play in the third quarter. Duquesne went on to miss each of its last three field goal attempts in the period and headed into the fourth with a 44-42 deficit.
 
Rhode Island controlled the final 10 minutes and led by multiple possessions throughout. A Myers trey at the 4:16-mark of the fourth quarter made the score 56-51, but a basket-and-one and a three pointer on consecutive possession for the Rams pushed their lead to 62-51 with three minutes to play in the game. Rhode Island led the rest of the evening by at least nine points to deal the Dukes their second-straight loss.   
 
Duquesne shot 23-of-57 (40 percent) from the field and 7-of-22 (32 percent) from beyond-the-arc. Rhode Island converted 25-of-51 (49 percent) and 5-of-11 from downtown. The Rams won the rebound battle (36 to 26) and made 12 of 15 at the free throw line. The Dukes converted all four of their attempts at the charity stripe, but did not get to the line until the fourth quarter.
 
Four Rhode Island players scored in double figures, led by a game-high 19 by Dez Elmore.
 
The loss snaps a six-game winning streak that the Dukes held over the Rams. It was also the first time since 2007 that Rhode Island left Pittsburgh with a win over Duquesne.
 
Sole secured her 500^th-career rebound in the second quarter of the game. She now has 380 for her Duquesne career after hauling in 122 as a freshman at Maine.
 
Duquesne heads back on to the road for a tilt at Saint Louis on Saturday, Jan. 22 on ESPN+. The game will tip at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. local time.