Pittsburgh, Pa. – A game that featured 14 lead changes and 10 ties, the Duquesne women's basketball team couldn't overcome a fourth quarter run by Dayton as it dropped an 80-71 decision on Wednesday night inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, during Atlantic 10 action. With the loss, the Dukes slip to 11-6 overall and 2-4 in conference play.

POINT OF EMPHASIS
It was a back-and-forth affair to begin the contests as both teams traded the opening 18 points before a jumper from graduate student Gabby Hutcherson gave the Dukes an 11-9 lead, with 4:20 remaining. Consecutive buckets from Nicole Stephens pushed the Flyers lead to three before Duquesne mounted a 10-0 run to end the quarter, 21-14. Junior Jerni Kiaku paced the stint with four points while classmate Andjela Matic and senior Kiandra Browne each tallied three points. Dayton opened the second quarter on a 9-5 run to trim the deficit, 26-23 before a free-throw from senior Megan McConnell and a three-pointer from freshman Faith Walker extended the advantage back to five. The Flyers would respond once again, ended the half on a 10-5 stint as it was tied 35-35 heading into the break.

QUOTABLE
"I have a lot of mixed emotions, really disappointed in our energy," head coach Dan Burt said. "When you shoot 9-for-43 from the three-point line, it becomes very, very difficult to press when you're pressing off of misses. And so, we were not able to get into our press a lot because we took a lot of threes that didn't go in, and a lot of them were good shots. We can talk about the free-throws and if we make our free-throws at a clip that is acceptable to division one teams around 75 percent, we would have won the game, but we're in January, and there's a lot of "my bads." We didn't do the things that you need to do to win. Whether you're at home or away, whether you're playing six freshmen or you're playing none, you shoot the ball the way we did tonight from the three-point line and from the free throw-line, and then you don't execute defensively on the game plan. Kudos go to Dayton. I think that they did a really good job of coming out in the zone after the time out on multiple possessions. That was something that we weren't prepared for. We have not seen them do that the entire year and they did a nice job of breaking the press."

LATE RUN...
Duquesne trailed 59-57 heading into the final quarter before Dayton (11-6 / 5-1) pushed its lead to 62-59 with 8:46 remaining in regulation. Hutcherson would tie the score with a triple before the Flyers broke the contest open with an 11-0 run, pushing their lead to 73-72 with just 4:17 remaining. Dayton went 4-fo-5 from the field during the stint, led by Rikki Harris. The Dukes would make a final push, responding with seven unanswered to cut the deficit, 73-69. Freshman Nadia Moore sparked the run with a layup, followed by a triple, a steal, and a layup all from McConnell. Dayton unfortunately would stem the tide, ending the contest by scoring seven of the final nine points to secure the win.

BALANCED EFFORT
Four Dukes finished in double figures on Wednesday night, led by junior Jerni Kiaku. She finished with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists, and one steal. Kiaku netted 11 of her 18 in the first half, shooting 4-of-6 from the field. Senior Megan McConnell ended with 15 points, six rebounds, six assists, and three steals. With her second assist in the first quarter, McConnell surpassed April Robinson (2013-16) to become the 2nd all-time assists leader in program history. She now has 583 dimes for her career. Graduate student Gabby Hutcherson totaled 13 points off three triples while totaling four rebounds on Wednesday. Junior Andjela Matic was the final Dukes in double digits, carding 10 points, with two triples and two rebounds.

NOTES
Dayton featured three players in double figures, led by Nicole Stephens, posting a game-high 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor … Ivy Wolf netted 13 points and four assists while Olivia Leung chipped in 10 points … Stephens and Wolf combined for eight of the teams 10 three pointers … Dayton held a slight 45-44 edge in rebounding but the DU grab a season-best 19 offensive rebounds … The Dukes turned it over just nine times and forced 14 Flyer turnovers … Duquesne shot a program record 43 three-pointer, connecting on only nine … The Dukes shot a season-low 48.0 percent (12-of-25) from the foul line.

UP NEXT
Duquesne returns home when it welcomes Rhode Island on Sunday, Jan. 19, for a league contests, beginning at 12:05. The game will be streamed on CBS Sports Network, one of three televised contests for the Dukes this season.