GAME 30
#5 Duquesne (18-11, 13-5 A-10) vs #13 UMass (5-26, 2-16 A-10)
Thursday, March. 7, 2024 | 1:30 p.m.
Henrico, Va. | Henrico Sports & Events Center
Stream: ESPN+ with Joel Godett (pxp) & Fallon Stokes (color)
 
GAME DAY LINKS
Video (ESPN+)
Live Stats
DUQ Game Notes

OPENING TIP
-The No.5 Duquesne University women's basketball team opens play at Atlantic 10 Championships on Thursday afternoon, battling No. 12 La Salle / No. 13 Massachusetts in the second round at the Henrico Sports & Events Center.

- The Dukes concluded the regular season last Saturday (3/2) falling to Saint Joseph's, 77-73 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse while celebrating Senior Day. Duquesne honored five Dukes prior to the matchup. Selma Kulo, Lauren Wasylson, Ayanna Townsend, Precious Johnson, and Amaya Hamilton were all honored.

- Five Dukes finished in double figures this evening, led by Ayanna Townsend and Megan McConnell. Townsend tied a season-high with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting (50.0 percent) while collecting seven rebounds. She also finished 4-for-5 at the charity stripe.

- McConnell posted 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting (53.3 percent) while also totaling seven rebounds and dishing out dive assists. She netted 14 of her 18 in the first half, shooting 6-for-10, with a pair of triples. Lauren Wasylson finished with a season-high 12 points, all coming from three-pointers where she was 4-of-7 from long range. She collected three rebounds and a steal.

- Precious Johnson and Jerni Kiaku each tallied 11 points. Johnson tied for the team lead with seven rebounds and three assists while Kiaku collected a pair of steals. The five combined for 70 of the Dukes 73 points.

- It was a back-and-forth affair to begin the contest as each team continued to trade buckets before the Hawks took a 13-11 lead into the first media timeout, with 3:06 remaining in the opening stanza. Saint Joseph's stretched its lead to 18-12 before sophomore guard Jerni Kiaku went coast to coast as time expired to trim the Hawks advantage at the end of quarter one, 18-14.

- It was a hot start for the Dukes in the second quarter, stringing together an 11-6 spurt in the opening three minutes to grab a 25-24 lead. Senior Ayanna Townend sparked the run with a layup before redshirt senior Lauren Wasylson buried a triple for Duquesne.

- Junior Megan McConnell converted consecutive driving layups before Townsend tallied another bucket. The Hawks didn't shy away, responding with a 7-0 stint to take a 31-25 advantage, with 4:29 remaining in the half.

- Duquesne responded in a big way, ending the half on a 10-2 burst to give them a 35-33 halftime lead. Townsend started the run with a layup as Wasylson connected on her second long ball of the quarter. McConnell continued the run with a three-pointer before capping the stint with a layup.

- The Dukes held Saint Joseph's to just 1-of-7 from the field in the final 3:24 while shooting an impressive 60.0 percent (9-for-15) for the quarter. McConnell, Townsend, and Wasylson combined for all 21 points in the second frame.

The Series vs Massachusetts – It'll be the 37^th meeting when the Dukes and Mineutwomen take the floor and the seventh contest in the A-10 tournament. Duquesne holds a 30-26 advantage in the series while posting a 4-2 mark in the postseason. Earlier this season (2/7), the Dukes routed UMass, 79-62 where it saw Megan McConnell and Naelle Bernard clip the 1,000 point plateau. McConnell finished just shy of another triple-double, with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three treys, nine rebounds, and seven assists while collecting a steal. Bernard paced the team with 15 points, on 6-of-9 shooting, while collecting a season-high six boards and dishing out four assists.

Duquesne got a nice lift from its bench, netting 37 points during the win. Gabby Grantham-Medley chipped in 11 points and three rebounds while Lauren Wasylson netted nine points on three triples. Tess Myers, Jerni Kiaku, and Precious Johnson all registered six points each while all collecting a pair of rebounds. The Dukes registered 24 points in the paint while tallying 14 fast break points, 10 of them coming in the second stanza. Duquesne recorded 21 assists on 28 field goals made while outrebounding UMass 36-28.

Scouting the Minutewomen – UMass is coming off a 54-49 victory over #11 La Salle in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on Wednesday. The Minutewomen were led offensively by Tori Hyduke's season-high 14 points while Stefanie Kulesza finished with a double-double on 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Chinenye Odenigbo joined three other Minutewomen in double figures with a career-high 13 points to go along with seven rebounds while Alexsia Rose chipped in 10 points and five rebounds.

A trio of UMass players are averaging double digits, led by Kristin Williams, with 11.6 points per game. She's dishing out 2.2 assists per game while collecting 1.7 rebounds. Rose is chipping in 11.5 points per game while tallying a team-leading 3.4 assists per game. Stefanie Kulesza rounds out the top three, posting 11.2 points, a team-best 7.2 caroms and 1.9 steals for the Minutewomen.

Saint Joseph's Remains - It was a promising start for the Dukes to begin the second half, netting six of the first 10 points and holding a 41-37 lead with 7:28 remaining. But the Hawks responded with a 19-4 run over a five-and-a-half-minute span to take a 56-45 advantage, with under a minute remaining in the third quarter. Saint Joseph's shot a stunning 88.8 percent (8-of-9) from the field, with a pair of triples during that time frame. In the final 10 minutes, the Hawks expanded its lead to as many as 16 (69-53) with 5:27 left in regulation. Duquesne would make one last run, stringing together an 18-7 stint that would trim Saint Joseph's lead to five but that's as close as they could get.

Postseason Accolades - Junior guard Megan McConnell earned a trio of Atlantic 10 postseason awards announced by the league office on Tuesday. McConnell, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., was tabbed to the All-Conference First Team while earning a spot on the All-Defensive Team and All-Academic Team, as voted on by the league's coaches. It's the second straight season where McConnell was selected to an All-Conference and All-Academic Team. The junior guard has been nothing but stout for the Dukes this season, leading them in almost every statistical category while surpassing the 1,000 point milestone earlier this season. She's averaging 13.2 points a game while shooting .456 percent from the floor and a career-high .403 from long range. McConnell ­currently ranks 27th in the country in assist to turnover ratio (2.35) while totaling 134 assists this year, good for third in the A-10. The Pittsburgh native is dishing out 4.6 helpers a game which is good for third in the conference. She has recorded 15 games this season with five plus assists while playing 38.35 minutes a game, which ranks second in NCAA Division I.

Although her passing and scoring were impressive, McConnell continues to anchor the Dukes on the defensive end. The 5'7 guard paces Duquesne in rebounds per game while being tabbed third in the league (8.6). Her 7.0 defensive rebounds per game sit 25th in the country while posting 10 double-digit rebound performances. McConnell is collecting 1.9 steals per contest while totaling 56 on the season, both sit sixth in the A-10. The junior guard has registered 10 games with three-plus takeaways while recording five contests with four steals. McConnell has tallied a team-leading seven double-doubles while flirting with a pair of triple-doubles.

Crazy Eight - Duquesne features an achievement that only four other teams in the country can say, and that's having five players surpass 1,000 career points in the same season. But the Dukes are on the verge of adding another member to that list and that is Precious Johnson. The senior center enters Thursday's contest just eight points shy (992) of the honor and joining teammates Amaya Hamilton, Tess Myers, Ayanna Townsend, Megan McConnell, and Naelle Bernard. Those five conquered the honor earlier this season while doing it in a two-week span. Louisville, Mississippi State, Kansas and Baylor are the other four schools that have conquered the threshold.

Johnson has given Duquesne impressive production off the bench, appearing in every contest this year. She's averaging 6.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game for the Dukes. Johnson has scored in double figures 10 times while recording three double-doubles. She's shooting 57.4 percent (78-of-136) from the floor while shooting 80.4 percent from the charity stripe (37-for-46). Johnson's 1.1 blocks per game sit tied for sixth in the conference while her 33 total rejections rank eighth. Against conference foes, she's shooting at an impressive 68.3 percent clip (58-of-92) which leads the league. Johnson is averaging 8.2 points, 4.3 boards, and 0.9 rejections in A-10 action. She has netted nine games in double figures while totaling eight games with five-plus caroms. Her 16 blocks in league play sit in the top 15 of the league as she has totaled six contests with two-plus rejections.