Pittsburgh, Pa. – After overcoming a 12-point second-half deficit, junior Jerni Kiaku sank a one-footed jumper to propel the Duquesne women's basketball team to a thrilling 70-68 victory over Longwood in the opening round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) on Thursday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. With the win, the Dukes improved to 20-12 on the season, marking their second consecutive 20-win campaign and the seventh under head coach Dan Burt.

GAME WINNER
With 1:15 remaining, Longwood's Kiki McIntyre buried a right-wing three to tie the game at 66-66. Moments later, senior Megan McConnell sank two clutch free-throws, putting Duquesne ahead 68-66 with 40 seconds left. Following a Lancers timeout, Frances Ulysse grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback attempt, calmly sinking both free throws to even the score at 68-all with 24 ticks remaining. The Dukes then called timeout, advancing the ball to the 28-foot mark for one final possession. After the inbound to McConnell, Kiaku took a handoff and drilled a step-back, one-footed jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining. Longwood had one last opportunity but couldn't get a shot off in time, sealing the victory for Duquesne.

QUOTABLE
Honestly, I was just thinking, do not let the whole team down," Kiaku said laughingly. "But really, for them to trust me in that situation means a lot and for Coach V (Vanessa Abel) to draw that up for me, as much junk as she talks, that that means a lot, and I just appreciate the trust of everybody on the staff and as well as the players."

POINT OF EMPHASIS
With 38 seconds left in the third quarter, Longwood's Malea Brown drilled a three-pointer, giving the Lancers their largest lead of the game at 54-42. They carried a nine-point advantage into the final quarter. Early in the fourth, Amor Harris extended Longwood's lead back to double digits before McConnell responded with a three-pointer. Kiaku followed with a foul-line jumper and an old-fashioned three-point play, cutting the deficit to 56-53 with 8:15 remaining. Longwood answered with two free throws and another three from Brown, pushing its lead back to 61-53 with just over six minutes to play. Senior Kiandra Browne then sank a pair of free throws, but both teams went scoreless for more than two minutes. At the 3:52 mark, Browne found a cutting McConnell, igniting an 8-0 run that gave the Dukes a 63-61 advantage. After McConnell's layup, Kiaku set up sophomore Raymi Coueta for back-to-back buckets, capping the surge and putting Duquesne in front.

QUOTABLE
"The madness of March," head coach Dan Burt said.  "I can't be prouder of our program than tonight. We didn't play necessarily a great basketball game at times, but we found a way to win at the end. Jerni did not play a very good first two quarters in terms of scoring the ball. It was a little unusual for her. She was missing shots at the rim, which she typically doesn't do, but we felt that she was rebounding the ball well, and so we stuck with her from that perspective, and that certainly paid off with her first double-double, and maybe her most complete game that she's had in the Duquesne uniform. This is a team that we kind of handled very well last year, a year ago in the regular season, and I want to compliment Longwood and their coaching staff and their players. I think that they have really changed the script down there in one short year, and had a very good year this year, and they're a good basketball team. I don't care what their net is, their net is that way because of the conference that they're in, I think they're a good basketball team and they're well coached. I'm very happy with coming away with a win tonight in front of an incredible crowd. Just the student body, our other athletics teams here, our marketing people, just simply were outstanding to make this happen and build this kind of atmosphere. And I'm incredibly proud of where our program is, and what our program has done."

THAT BACKCOURT CHEMISTRY
Senior Megan McConnell and junior Jerni Kiaku have established themselves as one of the nation's top backcourts, and they delivered another standout performance tonight. McConnell led all scorers with 25 points, adding eight rebounds, seven steals, and three assists. She knocked down five three-pointers while shooting 42.9 percent from the field, including 15 first-half points on 6-of-12 shooting with three triples. Kiaku recorded her first career double-double, contributing 17 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. She shot 41.2 percent from the floor, dished out five assists, and collected two steals. The junior guard came alive in the second half, scoring 13 of her 17 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. She shot an efficient 6-of-10 from the field over the final 20 minutes while grabbing seven rebounds. Together, McConnell and Kiaku combined for 42 points, 20 rebounds, eight assists, and nine steals in the victory. The dynamic duo has reached double figures in the same game 25 times this season.

NOTES
Senior Kiandra Browne finished with nine points and seven rebounds while taking an impressive three changes on the night … Freshman Mackenzie Blackford finished with a pair of triples while classmate Faith Walker registered her first career start … Longwood had three players finish in double figures, led by Malea Brown, with 20 points, eight rebounds, and four assists … Amor Harris finished with 12 points while Frances Ulysse chipped in 10 … Duquesne forced 21 turnovers while collecting 11 steals … The Dukes held a 28-16 advantage in the paint and a 20-17 In points off turnovers.

UP NEXT
Duquesne advances to the second round of the WNIT and will travel to Miami (Ohio) on Sunday, March 23, with tip-off scheduled for 1:00 p.m.