GAME 14 | DUQUESNE (5-8, 0-1 A-10) at VCU (5-5, 0-0 A-10)
Wed. Jan. 5, 2022 • 6:00 p.m.
Siegel Center (7,500), Richmond, Va.
TV: ESPN+

The Dukes travel back to Virginia's capital for the second time in five days to take on VCU in an Atlantic 10 showdown.

Duquesne is 12-3 under head coach Dan Burt in games played in the state of Virginia - including a 74-63 win over UVA in 2017.

HOW TO FOLLOW

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

THE SERIES - vs. VCU

• The Dukes and Rams have met annually since VCU joined the Atlantic 10 in 2012.
• Duquesne has won 11 of the 14 all-time meetings, including a 9-2 mark against VCU since 2012.
• The Dukes had their eight-game winning-streak against the Rams snapped last season in a 68-63 overtime-loss at La Roche's Kerr Fitness Center in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.
• Prior to last season's meeting, the contests in 2019 and 2020 were decided by three points.
• The Dukes have won each of the five Atlantic 10 contests played at VCU's Siegel Center.
• The last time Duquesne lost to VCU in Richmond was a 78-60 setback on Dec. 2, 1990.

LAST MEETING - Jan. 10, 2021

• Duquesne was outscored by VCU 12-7 in overtime, as the Dukes fell to the Rams 68-63.
• A corner trey by Tess Myers with 8.3 seconds remaining forced the overtime period.
• Myers registered her first career 20-point game in a breakout performance.
• She shot 6-of-11 from long range, which tied a Duquesne freshman record of six 3-pointers.
• The record was set by Heather Massengale on Feb. 10, 1994 against Temple.
• Amaya Hamilton registered her first-career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
• Neither team led by more than six points at any point, as the overtime contest featured eight lead changes and seven tied scores.
• VCU was led by four double-figure scorers in Tera Reed (16 pts.) Sarah Te-Biasu (16 pts.) Sydney Archie (14 pts.) and Taya Robinson (11 pts.).

SCOUTING VCU

• VCU will be playing for the first time in 19 days after having to cancel or postpone its past four scheduled games.
• After starting the season 5-2 with Power-5 wins over both Washington and Boston College, the Rams have dropped their past three games -- all by single digits.
• One of those losses was a seven-point setback to then-No. 17 South Florida. USF has scored wins over both Stanford and Oregon this season and lost by just seven to UConn.
• VCU leads the A-10 in three-point field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 25.8 percent this season.
• Taya Robinson is the team's leading scorer and ranks ninth in the A-10 with 14.8 ppg.
• She has scored in double-figures in eight of the nine games she has played in, including a season-high 19 in a two-point loss at MAC-favorite Buffalo on Dec. 8. Robinson also ranks third in the league with 38.8 three-point field goal percentage.
• Sarah Te-Biasu ranks second on the team with 11.7 ppg. and led the team with 19 points in their most recent game against Stetson.
• Janika Griffith-Wallace slots second in the A-10 with 2.6 steals per game.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Dukes were unable to overcome a 20-point second-half deficit in their 82-76 loss at Richmond on Saturday.
• Duquesne trailed the Spiders by as many as 23 points in the third quarter. The Dukes managed to draw all the way back within five in the final minute, before falling short.
• Amanda Kalin scored a team-high 18 points while making her season-debut.Three other Dukes finished in double figures, including a 14-point performance by Libby Bazelak.
• Fatou Pouye added 12 points, while Megan McConnell finished with 10 points.
• Duquesne shot 23 of 55 (42 percent) from the field, while Richmond posted a 27-of-35 (51 percent) showing on its home floor. It was the highest field-goal percentage and point-total allowed by the Dukes this season.
• Duquesne scored 31 points in the fourth quarter -- the most in a single quarter by the team this season.
• The Spiders led wire-to-wire and never trailed.

CLOSE ONLY COUNTS IN HORSESHOES

• The Dukes are winless in the seven 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.
• Duquesne also mounted a second-half rally after trailing by as many as 23 points at Richmond. The Dukes drew within five points of the Spiders in the closing minutes, before eventually losing by six.

INSTANT IMPACT

• After missing the first 12 games, Amanda Kalin made her first appearance this season and led the team in scoring in their A-10 opener at Richmond.
• She started each of the first six games during the 2020-21 season, before suffering a season-ending leg injury at Dayton.
• Kalin led team with 15.5 points per game and scored in double figures four times at the time of her injury.
• She dropped a career-high 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including a career-best five three-point shots, at Toledo last season.
• Kalin was one of 23 players in the nation and the only A-10 player during the 2019-20 season to post a triple-double.
• She finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over La Salle.

ROUTE 66

• 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 ADJUSTMENTS TO COVID POLICY

• The league announced late in December a revised COVID-19 policy due to the recent outbreak of cases from the Omicron variant.
• The updated policy allows for postponed games to be rescheduled or declared a "no-contest" in the event that a suitable date cannot be found.
• The Dukes game versus Cornell, which was scheduled for Dec. 21, will not be rescheduled this season.

BOUNCE BACK PERFORMANCES

• Although the Dukes enter on a two-game skid for the fourth time this season, the team has never lost three-straight.
• Duquesne cruised to double-digit wins over Lafayette and Akron, while picking up a nine-point victory over Saint Francis when it previously entered a game on a two-game skid.

VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS ... AND THE DUKES

• Duquesne is 12-3 under head coach Dan Burt in games played in the state of Virginia - including a 74-63 win over UVA in 2017.
• Despite the run of success in Virginia, the Dukes have lost each of their past two games in the Old Dominion State (Longwood and Richmond).
• Richmond's 67-64 overtime-win over Duquesne in 2020 was the first time a Dan Burt coached team had lost a game in the commonwealth.  

ROAD WOES

• Duquesne is 1-5 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.

DECEMBER TO REMEMBER

• Tess Myers will look to bounce back after being held scoreless for the first time this season in the team's loss at Richmond.
• Myers averaged 19.3 over the team's final three games in the month of December, including a career-high 23 points all in the second half of the team's win over Saint Francis on Dec. 11.
• She followed that performance with 21 points in the team's loss to Penn State on Dec. 18.
• Myers' back-to-back 20-point games were 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 11.5 ppg. and has knocked down more three-point shots through 13 games this season (36) than she did during the entire 16-game 2020-21 season (25).
• Myers leads the A-10 and ranks 30th in Division I with 2.8 three-point field goals made per game.
• She also ranks second in the A-10 with a 40.0 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 15.1 points through the team's past 12 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 14th in the A-10 with 13.6 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 5.5 rpg., respectively.
• McConnell has hauled in at least three rebounds in all 13 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 both 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game.The Chartiers Valley product also ranks third on the team with 9.3 ppg.

DAILY DOUBLE

• 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 701 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 10 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 second all-time in school history with a .388 three-point field goal percentage, is only 48 points away from becoming the 31st 1,000-point scorer in school history.
• After averaging 7.2 points through the first 10 games, she has posted 12.3 through the past three games.
• The last time the Dukes played at VCU in 2020, Bazelak scored a career-high 23 points in a three-point win.

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.