Pittsburgh, Pa. – In front of a record-breaking crowed for a women's basketball contest inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,023), the Dukes secured a 79-69 triumph over George Washington on Wednesday morning, during Education Day.. With the win, the Duquesne University women's basketball team extends its winning streak to six straight and improve to 18-9 overall, with a 13-3 mark in Atlantic 10 action. The 13 conference wins ties the most ever in program history.
POINT OF EMPHASIS
Heading to the final 10 minutes, the Dukes held a 57-56 advantage before mounting a 10-5 stint, to push its lead to 67-61, with 4:07 remaining. Senior
Precious Johnson and sophomore
Jerni Kiaku paced the charge with five points each. Nya Robertson would cut the deficit to three after burying her sixth triple of the contest, with just under four-minutes remaining. Duquesne would respond by scoring eight consecutive points, to grab its largest lead of the contest, 75-64. Johnson sparked the stint with a layup before Kiaku would find the bottom of the net. Senior
Amaya Hamilton would connect on a pair at the charity stripe, followed by another layup from Johnson to cap the stint. During that span, the Dukes held George Washington (10-17, 3-12 A-10) to 0-of-6 shooting from the floor and 0-for-3 from behind the arc. Hamilton and junior
Megan McConnell would go 4-of-4 from the chalk in the final 57 seconds, to seal the deal for Duquesne.
QUOTABLE
"I wish I could say that I enjoyed that more but that was certainly a game where we had to have incredible focus and you couldn't relax for a second," head coach
Dan Burt said. "I really believe that George Washington and what their record is, is not indicative of how good they are. They put us in some actions offensively that caused a lot of problems and created mismatches that they took advantage of. On our end, I could not be prouder of how we played today in a championship environment. Our post players,
Precious Johnson and
Ayanna Townsend were outstanding today with a combined 22 points and 10 rebounds, on 6-of-11 shooting and 10-for-13 from the free-throw line. I thought that played a big part in that. I could go up and down our lineup but I'm proud of the way they played."
OVERCOMING THE HOT HAND
After missing its first two shots of the contest, the Dukes jumped out to an early 12-8 lead, thanks to seven points from senior
Ayanna Townsend and five from McConnell. The Revolutionaries responded with a 12-5 stint to take a 20-17 advantage. George Washington shot 5-of-7 from the floor during the while forcing a pair of turnovers. The Revolutionaries would lead 26-22 after the opening stanza, where they shot 66.7 percent (10-of-15) from the floor. Robertson led the way with 13 first quarter points, including 3-of-4 from long range. The Dukes flipped the script defensively in the second quarter, holding George Washington to just 33.3 percent (5-for-15) from the floor and Robertson to just two shots. After a pair of free-throws, the Dukes put together an 8-2 burst, which knotted the score at 30-all. The Revolutionaries countered with a 9-4 stint that pushed their lead to 39-34, with 2:38 remaining in the half. Duquesne would net the final six points to take a 40-39 halftime advantage.
EVEN PRODUCTION
For the second straight game, the Dukes finished with five players in double-figures, led by
Megan McConnell. She finished with 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 7-for-9 from the charity stripe. McConnell collocated eight rebounds while dishing out four assists.
Jerni Kiaku finished with 13 points and a season-high seven rebounds, on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor.
Amaya Hamilton and
Ayanna Townsend each posted 12 points while Townsend tallied five boards, three assists, and a block. Hamilton recorded three rebounds, two blocks, two assists, and one steal in the win.
Precious Johnson was the final Duke in double-figures, ending with 10 points, three caroms, one block, and one steal. She netted nine of her 10 points in the fourth quarter, where she was 5-for-6 from the free-throw line.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Duquesne held a slight edge in points in the pair (38-32) while scoring 18 points off 12 George Washington turnovers. Nya Robertson led all scorers, netting 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting, including six triples. Junior
Naelle Bernard chipped in nine points off three three-pointers for the Dukes as Duquesne shot 21-of-27 (77.8 percent) from the chalk. Duquesne was defensively stout in the second half, holding the Revolutionaries to just 32.4 percent (12-of-37) from the floor and 3-for-12 (25.0 percent) from long range.
UP NEXT
Duquesne is idle for a week before it travels to Richmond on Wednesday, Feb. 28, for its final road test of the season, with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
