Duquesne Hangs On For Road Victory at Marshall

The Duquesne Women’s Basketball Team had its first game outside of Pittsburgh this season and won Sunday afternoon at Marshall by a 77-72 score.

Duquesne (5-1) is off to its best start since the 2015-16 season and led by as many as 21 points in this contest.

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The Dukes played seven in this game and were paced by Precious Johnson’s third career double-double, consisting of 19 points and 13 rebounds. Tess Myers amassed a season best 18 points and shot 4-for-5 on her two-point shots. Myers also was the only player on either team to play the full 40 minutes.

Megan McConnell put up another one of her all-around performances, with her 12 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and six steals, which were a season high. McConnell’s eight assists also came with no turnovers.

Amaya Hamilton backed up one of the best performances in her Duquesne career with an 11-point effort.

Johnson and Reilly Sunday were the two Duquesne reserves who played in this game. Ayanna Townsend had her usual starting spot but battled foul trouble, ultimately fouling out. Lauren Wasylson earned her first start with Naelle Bernard not traveling for this game.

Duquesne shot a season best 49.2% in this game and all seven players who saw the floor scored.

The Dukes opened the contest on a 10-4 run, ending with a Wasylson three-pointer off Hamilton’s assist, ultimately settling for a 19-10 advantage at quarter’s end after Johnson drilled a layup to beat the buzzer.

Duquesne’s lead reached 16 points, its highest figure in the first half, when Johnson swished in a three-point basket with 3:10 remaining in the second quarter, and she buried another deep shot to place the lead at 41-28 at halftime.

The third quarter advantage reached 18 near its final stages when Myers banged in a three-point shot on a fastbreak effort.

A Marshall response left the score at 60-45 after 15 minutes.

Duquesne achieved its largest advantage of the afternoon when McConnell found Sunday for a layup with 7:39 remaining in regulation.

Marshall responded with a 17-1 run as Duquesne could not make its shots and conceded several looks, most from three-point range, as suddenly both teams were separated by five points.

Duquesne had inconsistencies at the free-throw line, especially closing the game, shooting 10-for-19 from the charity stripe in this one.

Those misses continued to keep the Thundering Herd in the game, and even when it missed a potential free throw which would have made this contest a one-possession, affair, it had an open look from behind the three-point line which it could not knock down.

The contest was no longer in doubt at that point as Sunday buried a free throw.

Duquesne next plays Thursday when it hosts Tulsa at 6 p.m. These teams met a season ago in Oklahoma with the Dukes on the wrong end of a 77-62 contest.