Henrico, Va. – The No. 12 seed Duquesne women's basketball team saw its postseason run come to an end Thursday afternoon, falling 66-45 to No. 5 seed Saint Joseph's in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championships at the Henrico Sports & Events Center. With the loss, the Dukes conclude their season with a 12–19 overall record.

POINT OF EMPHASIS
Saint Joseph's jumped out to an early 8–2 advantage before freshman Alexis Bordas converted an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the deficit to 8–5. The Hawks quickly found their rhythm, mounting a 13–2 run fueled by 5-of-6 shooting from the floor and a perfect 3-of-3 mark from beyond the arc to build a 21–7 lead with 4:25 remaining in the quarter. After a brief scoring drought, Duquesne responded with a 7–4 spurt to close the period, as three different Dukes recorded a basket to trim the margin to 25–14 at the end of the first. Saint Joseph's was efficient throughout the quarter, shooting over 52 percent from the floor while knocking down five of its 10 attempts from long range. The second quarter opened with a slow start for both teams, which combined to shoot just 3-of-10 from the field over the first six minutes. Coming out of the media timeout, however, the Dukes pieced together a 10–4 run over the final 3:20 to cut the deficit to 34–28 at halftime. Bordas sparked the surge with a layup, and after a Hawks basket, redshirt sophomore Gabby Grantham-Medley answered with a score of her own. Saint Joseph's briefly halted the momentum with a layup, but sophomore Mackenzie Blackford converted a pair from the line before Bordas added another bucket and freshman Raevin Washington capped the run with a jumper.

QUOTABLE
"Today was a day where we got beat by a better basketball team," head coach Dan Burt said. "We lost to a better team, a more disciplined team, a team that is adapted to the new rules. They were incredibly physical today, and they played within the rules of that, and they did a really nice job with it. We didn't expect them to go five for six from the three-point line and seven of eight to start the game. And kind of blitzed us a little bit. Our kids fought back with resilience and optimism and then our third quarter, like a lot of times this year, we didn't do a very good job offensively, and that's on me as the head coach. I did not put us in good situations. We had too much dribbling around, too much standing on the arc and you can't be undisciplined and can't play a poor game against St Joe's and we did that. That concludes our season, a season that started with a lot of optimism, and it still finishes with some optimism. I really enjoy the women that we have in our locker room. I think they're good young women, but today we saw a lack of experience and some things that we're going to have to change from a coaching perspective to be better, and that's what we'll do in the offseason."

SHOOTING WOES
It was a difficult start to the second half for the Dukes, as Saint Joseph's (20–10) opened the third quarter with nine straight points to extend its lead to 43–28 with just under six minutes remaining. The Hawks were sharp at the foul line during the run, converting a perfect 5-of-5 from the stripe. Junior Reina Green halted the momentum at the 5:17 mark, knocking down a triple. From there, the teams traded the next 14 points before Saint Joseph's carried a 53–35 advantage into the final quarter. Duquesne struggled to find its rhythm offensively in the period, shooting just 21.4 percent (3-of-14) from the field, while the Hawks connected on nearly 50 percent of their attempts. Duquesne continued to battle in the fourth quarter, as Green buried a pair of three-pointers in the opening four minutes and Gabby Grantham-Medley added two free throws. However, Saint Joseph's pushed its lead to its largest of the afternoon, 66–43, with back-to-back triples with just over four minutes remaining. The Dukes shot 22.2 percent (6-of-27) from the field in the second half and connected on just three shots from beyond the arc.

DUO IN DOUBLE DIGITS
Duquesne placed two players in double figures, led by Alexis Bordas. The freshman finished with 13 points, one rebound and one steal, marking her 25th double-figure scoring performance of the season and the 15th time she has led the Dukes in scoring. Bordas concludes her rookie campaign tied for second on Duquesne's single-season three-pointers list while totaling 481 points on the year. Reina Green narrowly missed recording her third double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds while knocking down three triples. The performance marked her 12th double-figure scoring outing this season and the sixth time she has led the team in rebounds.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Gabby Grantham-Medley added nine points, three rebounds and three assists, while Raevin Washington contributed six points, six rebounds and four blocks. Fatou Sane and Faith Walker each chipped in four rebounds. Saint Joseph's placed three players in double figures, led by Gabby Casey with 16 points. Casey also knocked down three triples to go along with three rebounds and three assists. Faith Stinson and Aleah Snead each finished with 10 points, with Snead also recording six rebounds and six assists.