Philadelphia, Pa. – Leading for the entire contest, the Duquesne women's basketball team battled to a 67-64 victory over conference-leading Saint Joseph's on Wednesday night at the Michael J. Hagan '85 Arena. The win snapped a three-game losing skid for the Dukes, who improved to 10-5 overall and earned their first conference victory of the season (1-3). It also ended a six-game losing streak against the Hawks and marked their first win in Philadelphia since the 2019-20 season.
BEND BUT DON'T BREAK
Entering the fourth quarter with a 51-44 lead, Duquesne quickly extended their advantage to 10 with a driving layup and a deep three from senior
Megan McConnell. However, a two-minute scoring drought allowed Saint Joseph's to rally with a 10-1 run, narrowing the gap to 57-56 with 3:26 left in regulation. Following a Dukes timeout, freshman
Mackenzie Blackford drained a clutch three-pointer from the right wing, pushing the lead back to four. The Hawks answered with a driving layup, but freshman
Nadia Moore responded by sinking a pair at the chalk, extending the lead to 62-58 with 1:48 remaining. Saint Joseph's Mackenzie Smith went one-for-two at the line, but graduate student
Gabby Hutcherson delivered a crucial three-pointer from the top of the key to restore the Dukes' six-point cushion. The Hawks trimmed the deficit to four with 51 seconds left, but Blackford sealed the game by sinking two free-throws with just three seconds remaining.
QUOTABLE
"This was a complete team victory," head coach
Dan Burt said. "We got critical and timely contributions from just about everyone on the roster. We decided to do something a little bit different defensively, and I'm not going to go too deep into that, but it certainly paid off in spades. And the kids executed the game plan perfectly, and we out rebounded a very good basketball team in Saint Joe's. It's a situation where you're playing against a very physical team who is a very veteran team, and they have three great basketball players. We had to do something differently tonight, and how we defended, and we did that, and our kids bought into that game plan. I think that our coaches also on both sides of the ball, offensive and defensively. We did a really great job of coordinating both areas, and then our substitutions tonight were really on point."
DEFENSIVELY STOUT
Saint Joseph's (12-3, 3-1 A-10) entered Wednesday's matchup boasting three of the league's top scorers, each averaging over 16 points per game. However, Duquesne's defense rose to the challenge, holding all three players to single digits and well below their season averages. The Dukes dominated defensively in the third quarter, limiting Saint Joseph's to just nine points on 2-of-12 shooting (16.7%). Duquesne opened the second half with a 6-0 run, fueled by layups from junior
Jerni Kiaku and McConnell, along with a pull-up jumper from Bronwe, extending their lead to 44-35. The teams then traded baskets before Duquesne strung together four unanswered points, building a 51-38 advantage with 2:43 left in the quarter. Saint Joseph's responded with back-to-back three-pointers from Laura Ziegler and Talya Brugler to close the quarter, trimming the deficit to 51-44 heading into the final stanza.
THE QUARTET
Four Dukes finished in double figures on Wednesday night, led by senior
Megan McConnell. She finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, six steals, five assists, and a pair of blocks. McConnell finished 6-of-10 (60.0 percent) from the floor while going 6-of-7 (85.7 percent) from the charity stripe. Freshman
Mackenzie Blackford netted 13 points, three triples, and four rebounds while going a perfect four-of-four from the chalk. Junior
Jerni Kiaku and senior
Kiandra Browne each tallied 10 points while Browne was rebound shy of double-double, ending with nine while Kiaku collected three caroms. The quartet accounted for 52 of the Dukes 67 points while netting six triples and going 12-of-16 from the free-throw line.
NOTES
Duquesne held Saint Joseph's to its third lowest scoring out of the season … As a team, the Dukes forced the Hawks into 20 turnovers, just the third time Saint Joe's has done that … Freshman
Nadia Moore ended with seven points and three rebounds in her first collegiate start … Saint Joseph's had one player in double figures, Aleah Snead, who finished with 10 points off the bench … Duquesne outrebounded the Hawks, 38-34 while tallying nine steals
UP NEXT
Duquesne concludes its road trip on Saturday, Jan. 11, when it travels to George Washington for a league contest, beginning at 12:00 p.m.
