PITTSBURGH – Duquesne women's basketball dropped its first home game of the season on Thursday night to Tulsa, losing 65-59 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Despite a furious rally by Duquesne in the fourth quarter, Tulsa held off the Dukes.

Duquesne falls to 5-2 on the year while Tulsa improves to 5-2.
 
Everything fell for the Dukes in the first few minutes, but after the hot start, nothing went their way offensively until the final frame. A 15-0 run in the second half that was led by junior forward Ayanna Townsend brought the Dukes back from down 20 points, but even though they got back within one, they were never able to go ahead.
 
From 0:03 in the third quarter to 1:15 in the fourth, Duquesne outscored Tulsa 24-5 – it just was not enough in the end to take the lead.
 
On the glass, Tulsa was able to out-rebound Duquesne 46-41. The fastbreak points were also lopsided in the visitor's favor, as Tulsa scored 15 of them compared to none by Duquesne.
 
Townsend put up a career-high 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting despite playing just 26 minutes due to foul trouble. She played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls, yet she still dominated for the Dukes down the stretch.
 
Sophomore guard Megan McConnell, the A-10's leading rebounder, set a new career high with 15 of them tonight.
 
Junior center Precious Johnson stayed hot offensively, scoring 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field.
 
As a team, Duquesne shot 33.3 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from three. The Dukes had the advantage in assists (16-14) and points in the paint (26-24).
 
The game was physical from the very beginning. Within the first two minutes, there were six fouls between the two sides.
 
Despite all the stoppages, Duquesne's offense came to play early, as it made five of its first seven shots – three of which were three-pointers. Sophomore guard Tess Myers' second three-pointer of the first quarter gave the Dukes an early 13-6 lead.
 
A 12-0 run by Tulsa gave it the lead after the first quarter and the Dukes found themselves down by five after their hot start.
 
Townsend opened the scoring in the second quarter with a short jumper then followed it up with a block on the other end. Her efforts were countered by two Tulsa three-pointers to extend the Golden Hurricane's lead to nine points.
 
Another five points for Tulsa extended its lead to 13 points as Duquesne's offense couldn't get anything going. The Dukes started the second quarter 1-for-5 from the field.
 
The two teams traded baskets for the next couple of minutes to keep the gap at 13 points, but back-to-back buckets by Townsend finally cut into the lead a little bit.
 
As it was able to do all half, Tulsa knocked down another couple shots to get the lead right back up to 13. Going into the second half, Tulsa led 38-25.
 
Sophomore guard Naelle Bernard started the third quarter with her second three-pointer of the night, then a layup by Johnson brought the deficit down to eight points.
 
Townsend scored her 14^th-point on a free throw after a made layup, but was subbed out shortly after due to her getting called for her fourth personal foul.
 
Another three-pointer by Tulsa, its ninth of the game, extended its lead to 18 points.
 
A McConnell three-point play ended the third quarter, but the Dukes' deficit stood at 17 points as they went into the final quarter.
 
Then Duquesne's offense came to life and erupted for a 15-0 run.
 
Although the game seemed out of reach, you couldn't tell by how the Dukes began the fourth quarter. They scored five quick points to bring the deficit down to 12 and forced a Tulsa timeout.
 
Following the timeout, a three-pointer by freshman Liv Westphal and a layup by Johnson brought the lead all the way down to seven points.
 
A clutch layup by Johnson made it a three-point game, then Townsend brought the deficit down to just one point with another big layup in the paint.
 
Unfortunately for the Dukes, they were just one or two makes away from taking the lead, but the shots didn't fall and Tulsa closed the game out from the free throw line.

GAME NOTES

• With three today, Myers has made multiple three-pointers in every game this season. She leads the team with 20 three-pointers made.
• With a career-high 15 rebounds tonight, it marks McConnell's fourth game of the season with 10 or more rebounds.
• Townsend now has a new career high after scoring 21 points tonight. Her field goal percentage sits at 52.8 percent on the year.

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