GAME 15 | DUQUESNE (5-9, 0-2 A-10) vs. St. Bonaventure (8-4, 0-1 A-10)
Sat. Jan. 8, 2022 • 2:00 p.m.
UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500), Pittsburgh, Pa.
TV: ESPN+

The Dukes return home to take on St. Bonaventure in an Atlantic 10 matchup on Saturday, Jan. 8 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The Dukes have won nine-straight games against the Bonnies in Pittsburgh. The last time Duquesne lost to St. Bonaventure on The Bluff was a 58-53 setback in 2012.

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. ST. BONAVENTURE

• The Bonnies are the second most-common opponent for the Dukes all time. The two teams have met 63 times and first met in 1981.
• Duquesne's 42 wins against St. Bonaventure are the most victories against a single opponent.
• The Dukes had their eight-game winning streak in the series snapped last season in a 72-55 setback in Olean.
• Duquesne has not lost consecutive games to St. Bonaventure since losses in 2016 and 2017.
• Dan Burt has earned 12 wins against the Bonnies as head coach of the Dukes. Only Rhode Island (13) has suffered more losses to Burt during his tenure.

LAST MEETING - Feb. 22, 2021

• St. Bonaventure shot 52.6 percent from the floor, including 50.0 percent from behind the arc in a 72-55 victory over Duquesne in Olean last season.
• Former Dukes' guard Ny Langley scored a team-high 17 points with six rebounds in the loss.
• Amaya Hamilton added 11 points and a career-high five blocks.
• Asianae Johnson scored a game-high 18 points to lead four Bonnies players in double-figures.
• She also dished out a game-high nine assists for St. Bonaventure.

SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE

• The Bonnies are playing for just the third time in three weeks. St. Bonaventure had to cancel its game versus Robert Morris (12/18) and postpone its A-10 opener with Saint Joseph's (1/1).
• The Bonnies finished their non-conference slate with eight wins, which was their most since the 2015-16 season.
• St. Bonaventure ranks third in the A-10 with a 36.6 percent opponents field goal percentage. The team also slots second in the league with 4.5 blocks per game.
• Offensively, the Bonnies rank 13th out of 14 A-10 teams with 57.8 points per game.
• Asianae Johnson, an A-10 All-Conference Third Team selection last year, leads the team and ranks seventh in the league with 15.9 ppg.
• Johnson, who has scored in double figures in all 11 games that she has played in, did not play (illness) in the Bonnies most-recent 90-43 loss at Dayton this past Tuesday.
• Her presence was missed, as the Bonnies trailed the Flyers 46-13 at the half and did not have a scorer reach double figures.

LAST TIME OUT

• Despite erasing a double-digit deficit to force overtime, the Dukes were upended 74-70 at VCU Wednesday evening.
• Duquesne held the ball with 11 seconds left in regulation in a 65-65 game. The Dukes had two chances to earn the win, but could not convert a potential game-winning basket.
• The Rams took the lead 90 seconds into overtime and never relinquished it.
• Precious Johnson led Duquesne and matched a season-high with 19 points and six rebounds.
• Tess Myers finished with 17 points and five boards, while Megan McConnell chipped in 15 points and six rebounds.
• Libby Bazelak was just shy of a double-double with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
• Laia Sole established a career-high with eight assists to go along with six points.
• It was the second-straight overtime setback to VCU for the Dukes. Duquesne was defeated 68-63 last season at La Roche in overtime.
• The loss also marked the first time the Dukes were defeated by VCU at the Siegel Center since 1990.

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 ponts of the Spiders in the closing minutes, before eventually losing by six.
• Although it trailed by 10 at one point, Duquesne held a two-point lead heading into the fourth quarter at VCU. The Rams eventually pulled out a four-point overtime win.

OVERTIME HISTORY

• The Dukes are now 24-17 all-time in overtime games following their loss at VCU on Wednesday.
• Duquesne has lost each of the last four overtime games in which it has played.
• Prior to the skid, the Dukes had won six-straight extra-session games dating back to 2015.

HEY NINETEEN

• Precious Johnson matched her season-high with 19 points in the team's loss at VCU Wednesday.
• It was just the third time this season she scored in double figures. Johnson also posted 19 in the team's win over Canisius.
• The native of Sweden, who ranked second in the A-10 in field goal percentage last season at 53 percent, has converted 51 percent of her shots from the field this season.

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.
• Kalin was held scoreless in limited action at VCU Wednesday.
• 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.
• The Dukes held VCU to 65 points in regulation, before falling 74-70 in overtime.

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.

UNCHARTED TERRITORY

• The Dukes enter on a three-game skid for the first time this season.
• Duquesne cruised to double-digit wins over Lafayette and Akron, while picking up a nine-point victory over Saint Francis when it entered a game on a two-game skid.
• The slump is the team's longest slide since dropping seven-straight at one point during the 2020-21 season.

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

• Duquesne is 9-2 against teams from the state of New York since the start of the 2019-20 season.
• The Dukes are 2-0 against the Empire State this season with wins over Siena and Canisius.
• The Dukes have also defeated Manhattan, Iona, Cornell, Fordham and St. Bonaventure during that stretch.
• Losses to Fordham in the 2020 A-10 Championship Semifinals and at St. Bonaventure last season are the team's only setbacks to New York teams.

HOME SWEET HOME

• Four of the Dukes five wins this season have come in the Steel City.
• Duquesne is 5-3 in games at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, which includes a win last season over Rhode Island in the lone game played inside the newly renovated building.
• Duquesne is 1-6 when playing on the road this season.
• The Dukes' 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 bounced back with a 17-point outing at VCU 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 11.9 ppg. and has knocked down more three-point shots through 14 games this season (39) than she did during the entire 16-game 2020-21 season (25).
• Myers ranks second in the A-10 and 32nd in Division I with 2.8 three-point field goals made per game.
• She also slots third in the A-10 with a 39.4 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 15.1 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 13th in the A-10 with 13.6 ppg.
• Pouye is second on the team shooting 49.3 percent from the field (63 of 127) and is tied for the team lead with a 39.4 three-point field goal percentage (13-of-33) this season.
• Pouye did not play in the team's last game at VCU.

GUARDS ON THE GLASS

• Guards Megan McConnell and Libby Bazelak lead the team in rebounding with 6.1 and 5.9 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 matched a season-high 10 rebounds in the team's loss at VCU. She has finished with five or more rebounds nine times this season.
• Bazelak also posted 10 rebounds in the team's win at Siena in November.

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 4.3 assists and fifth with 2.4 steals per game.
• The Chartiers Valley product also ranks third on the team with 9.7 ppg.

DISHING OUT DIMES

• The Dukes rank fifth in the A-10 with 13.8 assists per game.
• Duquesne has posted double-digit assist totals in each of the past 12 games, including 16 in the loss at VCU on Wednesday.
• The Dukes finished with nine assists in each of the first two games of the season.
• The team distributed a season-high 20 assists in the team's win over Canisius in December.

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 707 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 eight rebounds away from reaching 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 .387 three-point field goal percentage, is only 39 points away from becoming the 31st 1,000-point scorer in school history.

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.