New Orleans, La. – The Dukes concluded the Tulane Holiday Tournament on Thursday, falling to Little Rock, 63-52 at Devlin Fieldhouse in New Orleans, La. With the slip, the Duquesne women's basketball team falls to 6-6 this season.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Junior Tess Myers started the contest with a triple before Little Rock (1-10) connected on consecutive buckets to take a 4-3 lead. The two teams would go almost three minutes without a basket before Duquesne scored six of the next eight points to hold a 9-6 advantage. Senior Precious Johnson converted a layup before junior Megan McConnell and sophomore Jerni Kiaku both buried jumpers with 3:36 remaining in the opening quarter. The two squads would trade the final 12 points as the Dukes held a 15-12 lead after one. In the second stanza, Little Rock trimmed the Duquesne lead to just one with 6:02 remaining. During that span, freshman Gabby Grantham-Medley paced the Dukes as she scored seven straight points over the first four minutes. Out of the media timeout, both teams became stagnant as they traded the final eight points, with Duquesne leading 26-25 at the break.

THE TABLES HAVE TURNED
It was a different story in the second half as the Trojans shot 50.0 percent (12-of-28) from the floor and outscored the Dukes 38-26. Little Rock did its damage in the third quarter, when it opened the second half on a 10-4 run to hold a 35-30 lead with 6:27 remaining. After a layup by Johnson that cut the deficit to three, the Trojans netted 12 of the final 18 points to push its lead to 47-38. Little Rock was 4-of-4 from the floor during that spurt. Duquesne would get as close as four in the final quarter, off a jumper from Grantham-Medley and a triple by Myers but the Trojans continued to hit shots as they pushed their lead to as many as 13.

ALL-TOURNEY
Junior Megan McConnell was selected to the all-tournament team for her performance over the last two days. She averaged 15.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.0 steals while shooting 52.2 percent (12-for-23) in the two-day span. The junior guard began the tournament registering 18 points, nine assists, six rebounds, one block and one steal against Maine. Against Little Rock, she finished with 12 points, nine boards, dished out two assists, and collected a steal while shooting 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from the floor.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Gabby Grantham-Medley paced the Dukes with a season-high 15 points on 7-of-9 (77.8 percent) shooting from the floor. She collected three rebounds, one block, one assist, and buried a triple in 25 minutes off the bench. Tess Myers finished with 12 points on four three-pointers while senior Amaya Hamilton ended with three assists. Classmate Ayanna Townsend collected five rebounds while Jerni Kiaku corralled four boards and Precious Johnson tallied three blocks.

UP NEXT
The Dukes begin Atlantic 10 play again, when they travel to Dayton, Ohio to take on the Flyers on Saturday, Dec. 30, with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 p.m.

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