Duquesne Women's Basketball
Duquesne Crushes Rhode Island; Advances to A-10 Quarterfinals
PITTSBURGH — Going into Tuesday night’s first-round Atlantic 10 Championship contest, the Duquesne women’s basketball team had a clearly renewed confidence that showed through with a dominant 106-69 victory over Rhode Island at A.J. Palumbo Center.
Duquesne shot 63.5 percent from the field, a program-best under sixth-year head coach Dan Burt. The team-first effort showed through on 28 assists on 40 made baskets, 61 bench points and 48 points in the paint.
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Additionally, 10 of 11 players who saw the floor scored, grabbed at least one rebound and recorded an assist.
Duquesne senior guard Chassidy Omogrosso led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including five 3-point shots in 20 minutes of play. Omogrosso was also able to pass Candace Futrell for third place on Duquesne’s all-time scoring list.
Senior guard Conor Richardson recorded a season-high 20 points in 13 minutes of play, with 18 of those points coming in the first half.
Rhode Island was led by junior center Nicole Jorgensen’s 18 points, 10 of which came from the free throw line.
Duquesne has scored at least 100 points in a game for the third time in program history, with the first coming in a 116-point effort Nov. 23, 1990 against Valparaiso and a 100-point effort on the nose coming 19 years later on Nov. 15, 2009 at Niagara.
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After one quarter, Duquesne owned a 42-21 lead, shooting at a 77-percent clip. The 42 points Duquesne scored were a season-high conceded in one period by Rhode Island this season. The previous high was 28 points given up to Clemson on Dec. 8, 2018.
Duquesne continued its pace in the second quarter, shooting 62.5 percent from the field and taking a 66-36 lead into the locker room.
In the first half, Duquesne scored 20 points off 12 Rhode Island turnovers, while having 17 assists (from nine players) to five turnovers on its own end. Additionally, Duquesne’s bench scored 36 points, just as many as Rhode Island was able to as a team.
Kadri-Ann Lass was also able to surpass her first-year season block output, placing her third in program history.
Tuesday’s victory secures Duquesne a spot in the quarterfinals against Saint Louis which won 58-47 against Richmond. Duquesne fell 67-63 to Saint Louis on Feb. 13 at the Palumbo Center.
