Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne women's basketball team closed out its two-game homestand on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 72-53 decision to Saint Joseph's during Atlantic 10 play, inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. With the loss, the Dukes drop to 7-13 overall (.350) and 0-9 in conference play.
POINT OF EMPHASIS
After a pair of empty possessions to open the game, Saint Joseph's jumped out to an early 12-4 lead, knocking down four of its next six shots, including three triples during the run. Sophomore
Mackenzie Blackford responded with a three-pointer of her own, and freshman
Alexis Bordas followed by converting an old-fashioned three-point play to pull Duquesne within 14-12. The Hawks answered with a steal and a bucket to take a 16-12 advantage at the end of the opening quarter. In the second quarter, Kaylinn Bethea extended the Saint Joseph's lead to 22-17 before Duquesne answered with a 6-1 surge to knot the score at 23-23 with 4:15 remaining in the half. Junior Raina Green converted a three-point play, and after a Saint Joseph's free throw, Blackford buried her second triple of the half. The Hawks responded with eight straight points, but the Dukes closed the half on a 6-2 stint to trail just 33-29 at the break. Green knocked down a pair at the chalk, sophomore
Harriet Ford finished a layup, and after a Kaylie Griffin jumper, redshirt sophomore
Gabby Grantham-Medley capped the half with a bucket.
QUOTABLE
"Today, we were beaten by a better basketball team," head coach
Dan Burt said. "I have a lot of respect for Cindy and the Saint Joseph's program. She's a heck of a basketball coach, and they run their stuff really, really well, and they have a lot of confidence, a lot of experience, and frankly, they have a lot of momentum. We don't have any of those threes right now. We really lack experience, and it's evident with how we turn the ball over. When you are in the situation that we're in, you're not going to have momentum. I can't say enough about the players that are in our locker room, getting up off the mat after every defeat and still coming to practice and giving great effort like they are. They are doing the best that they can in a tough situation, and they're great young women and right now, we have to find small victories, and I've never wanted to ever say that. But we have to find small victories that lead to little steps that hopefully will lead to a win sooner than later."
ON A HEATER
Saint Joseph's (13-6 | 4-4 A-10) came out of the locker room on fire, shooting an impressive 91.7 percent (11-of-12) from the floor in the third quarter. After a jumper by Bordas trimmed the deficit to 34-31 with just over nine minutes remaining, the Hawks erupted for a decisive 15-3 run, shooting 6-of-7 (.857) from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, to build a 49-34 advantage. Sophomore
Fatou Sane briefly stemmed the tide with a basket, but Saint Joseph's closed the quarter on an 11-6 spurt without missing a single shot from the field. Gabby Casey paced the Hawks in the period, scoring 11 of her game-high 26 points while going a perfect 4-of-4 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep. Casey finished with a double-double, shooting 75.0 percent (9-of-12) from the floor while pulling down a team-high 10 rebounds. She also knocked down five three-pointers and dished out five assists. Duquesne looked to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter as Grantham-Medley and Bordas each converted baskets, but Saint Joseph's answered with seven unanswered points to maintain its comfortable cushion.
QUOTABLE
"We started the game with seven empty possessions and when you start like that, the game's not over at that point, but you're playing from behind in a big, big way," Burt continued. "We attempted to press, and then play a little bit of zone to maybe throw them off. But they hit two threes and got a layup and that didn't work. We weren't as physical consistently in being attached as I would have liked and that's a learning process there. We turned it over 20 times and before I got the stat sheet, I thought it was 25 times. So, when you start the game with seven empty possessions, and then you turn it over 20 times in the manner that we did, you're just not going to win many basketball games. We're dribbling the ball off our own foot out of bounds, we're throwing it to the other team at times, and then we get a little isolation heavy when we get late, because teams have scouted us very well. Right now, we don't have enough perimeter scoring to allow our post players to be effective inside and to get some heat off of Alexis."
INSIDE THE STAT SHEET
Alexis Bordas was the lone Duke in double figures, finishing with 13 points and one three-pointer while going a perfect 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. She also added two rebounds and two steals.
Harriet Ford and
Mackenzie Blackford each chipped in nine points, with Ford shooting 4-of-5 (.800) from the field and pulling down four rebounds, while Blackford connected on 3-of-4 (.750) attempts from beyond the arc.
Reina Green finished with seven points and five rebounds, and
Maja Rohkohl tied for the team lead with five boards.
NOTES
Jill Jekot also finished in double figures for the Hawks, ending with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and four steals … Saint Joseph's won the rebounding battle, 38-31 … The Hawks scored 15 points off 20 Duquesne turnovers … Duquesne held a 27-24 edge in points from its bench … Saint Joseph's held a 16-15 edge in second chance points … The Hawks featured 22 assists on 28 made field goals
UP NEXT
Duquesne returns to the road on Wednesday, Jan. 28, traveling to Richmond, Va., to take on the Spiders. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.
