West Lafayette, Ind. – The Duquesne university women's basketball team had its season come to an end on Thursday night, falling at Purdue, 71-50 in the Super 16 of the WNIT. The Dukes conclude the year with a 21-13 overall record, the third most wins under head coach
Dan Burt and the first 20 win season since the 2019-20 campaign.
POINT OF EMPHASIS
It was a slow start for both squads until the Boilermakers jumped out to a 9-4 advantage with 6:29 remaining in the opening stanza. Duquesne would respond with a 7-0 run, taking an 11-9 lead with just under three minutes remaining. Junior
Megan McConnell sparked the run with a triple, followed by consecutive fastbreak layups from sophomore
Jerni Kiaku. Sophie Swanson buried a foul line jumper for Purdue as it was knotted at 11-all after the opening 10 minutes. In the second quarter, the two squads traded the first eight points before the Boilermakers strung together an 8-0 stint, to take a 23-15 advantage, with 4:16 remaining. McConnell ended the run with her third triple of the half before Purdue scored six of the final 10 points, to take a 29-22 lead at the break.
ON A JERNI
The two squads traded the opening right points of the second half before Purdue mounted a 7-2 run to stretch its lead, 40-28. Kiaku kept the Dukes within striking distance, netting seven consecutive points in a two-minute span. After an old-fashioned three-point play from freshman
Gabby Grantham-Medley, Kiaku collected a steal and buried a jumper to cut the Boilermakers advantage to six (46-40), with 1:26 remaining. Purdue scored four of the final five points to hold a 50-41 lead after three quarters. Kiaku was dominant in the third stanza, scoring 11 of the Dukes 19 points in the frame. She was 3-of-4 from the field while going a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe and buried a triple to lead the charge. The sophomore guard paced the Dukes with a season-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor while collecting four rebounds, two steals, and one block.
QUOTABLE
"Tonight, we're disappointed because we didn't give Purdue our best shot," head coach
Dan Burt said. "We didn't have it tonight and some of that credit goes to Purdue and some of that goes to us just not seeing the ball go through the hoop. We fell short tonight and that will sting as we go into the offseason."
SENIOR SEND OFF
With the conclusion of tonight's contest, a quartet of seniors concluded their fabulous careers in a Duquesne uniform.
Amaya Hamilton,
Ayanna Townsend,
Precious Johnson, and
Lauren Wasylson all played their final games in the blue and white. Hamilton ends her career with 1,137 career points and 667 rebounds while sitting first in program history with the most games played in a Dukes uniform (141). Townsend finished her stint with 1,094 points and 657 boards while registering over 560 points in two seasons with Duquesne. In five seasons with the Dukes, Johnson recorded 1,039 points and 636 rebounds. She currently ranks second in Duquesne history in career field goal percentage (.517) and tied for fourth for career blocks (158). Wasylson concluded her career with just under 700 points while tallying 164 triples. She shot the second-best percentage of her career this season, netting a .369 average (24-for-65).
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Joining Kiaku in double figures was
Megan McConnell, who carded her 10
th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. She buried three triples while dishing out two assists and collecting a steal. The Duke shot a season-low 28.1 percent (18-of-64) from the floor while the Boilermakers shot 40.9 percent (27-of-66) for the contest. Duquesne held a 12-11 edge in offensive rebounds while Purdue led 44-39 in that category. The Boilermakers featured four players in double digits, led by Abbey Ellis with 15 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
QUOTABLE
"Our seniors have been through a tremendous amount, particularly Amaya and Precious," Burt continued. "They've been through COVID, they went through over 700 days of not having an arena, and continued to stick by us while being incredible student-athletes and pillars of the community. The standard at Duquesne is 20 wins and the postseason and our seniors got us back to that point. I'm incredibly proud of each and every one of them."
