Duquesne WBB Season In Review

The Duquesne Women’s Basketball standard under Dan Burt has consistently been 20 wins and postseason play and this year was a return to both.

Past years it was rebuilding on that as injuries and not having a true home gym both affected this program in a time when it was young and trying to learn how to win together.

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The 2022-23 season showed glimpses of what could be and most everyone from that squad came back for unfinished business this year.

It also saw six different players achieve 1,000 career points.

There were many games to choose from when picking the five best wins and of course best is relative, not always based on opponent, but the circumstances surrounding the victory.

These will be placed by date.

First there are three honorable mentions to mention. First the Dec. 5 75-73 home victory over Fordham in overtime. This game tested Duquesne’s patience as it tried to establish its identity in its first Atlantic 10 contest. The Dec. 10 89-82 double overtime victory over Kent State came against an NCAA Tournament team and Megan McConnell played every single minute. These results would bode well for one of the games on this list.

Lastly, a 66-59 road win at Davidson Jan. 21 was a complete team victory but more so a chance for Ayanna Townsend to not only lead the way with her 18 points, but also finish a story. In the previous year’s meeting against Davidson, she had a midrange jump shot for the win at the end of regulation, a shot she took at least 100 times the day before when she shot around and, in this instance, it did not fall, and her team fell short. In this game, her contributions were pivotal towards victory.

1. Pitt W 56-55 Nov. 18– This season had a bit of a bizarre start to it with the first three games coming on the road and this game serving as the home opener, on Light Up Night.

In the previous season, Duquesne wore red uniforms at Pitt and could not buy a basket to the point that coach Dan Burt refused to dress his team in said gear for the rest of that season.

This game saw Kiandra Browne affect the outcome by drawing multiple charges and Pitt’s Liatu King was called for traveling on an inbounds pass in the closing seconds.

“I love taking charges,” she explained. “It just takes away the offensive player’s hope. You just think ‘oh I’m getting a bucket’ and then ‘ha sike, you’ve got a foul’. Charges are such a great way to get momentum, and everyone gets hyped.”

Following the contest, Browne, McConnell and Nae Bernard were all smiles doing the gritty while rapping Sexyy Red’s SkeeYee.

“I honestly started crying as soon as that horn went off,” McConnell revealed. “I just think we work so hard and there’s a lot of disrespect on our name. I think we finally have proven to everybody what we’re made of.”

2. @ Dayton W 70-42 Dec. 30– While Dayton did not have its best season, this result was about the process which led to this win.

Duquesne was not in the best of places, coming in on a three-game losing streak, the last setback to winless Little Rock.

The players appeared tired, sad and worried that the coaches would be angry with them, but that was far from the case.

“When we left New Orleans, I was not happy by any stretch, but I said to them ‘the one bright side when we go to break is we’re in first place in the A-10 and still control our own destiny,’” Burt explained. “We’re feeling very good about where we are, this is the first time I’ve talked about before Christmas. I’m going to quote Jelly Roll, that rearview mirror is about this big and the windshield is this big and that’s the way we look at it.”

Instead, Duquesne used its eight-day layoff resting bodies before going back to basics and slowing the game down. The Dukes would run offensive sets five-on-zero to figure out the main tenants of the system and get back on track.

At that point Burt was admittedly using the first quarter of games as a trial to see what was going to work on that day, which meant more judgment calls but also additional accountability as a coaching staff to determine where they were falling short.

The Dayton victory was a demonstrative one and also saw Lauren Wasylson return to the court after overcoming two life-threatening blood clots reaching her lungs.

3. Richmond W 72-59 Jan. 24– All of the talk coming into this game was squarely about Richmond which was off to a 7-0 start in Atlantic 10 play and receiving votes towards the top 25 polls.

The Spiders were contained to shooting 33.9% shooting but instead of enjoying the win until midnight, Burt barely got to enjoy it for a few minutes before multiple fans approached him calling the victory a lucky one.

“People still don’t believe and that’s fine, that’s totally fine,” Burt critiqued. “We’ll have to show them.”

Amaya Hamilton stated after this game that hopefully the Dukes are no longer doubted and that this season’s goal was to earn a double bye.

Jerni Kiaku was a revelation in this game with her 18 points and making all eight of her free throws. Richmond’s Grace Townsend is considered by many to be the fastest player in the A-10 but Kiaku consistently blew past her when the two matched up with each other.

This allowed the “Jerni the Jet” name to stick, much to her chagrin.

“It’s one of those things where our team is a reflection of Jerni in a sense, where we’re all gaining confidence in ourselves and understanding what our roles are,” stated Burt.

4. George Mason W 63-62 Mar. 8 – While people will obsess over the end of the game in which the officiating crew made its worst of many mistakes in the contest, it is impossible to ignore how the Dukes used their defense to reverse a 101-75 regular season loss into its first Atlantic 10 Championship semifinal game since 2018-19.

“We’re at the point now where they have ownership, this is their team,” Burt remarked. “I’m just a steward in a sense and you have to give them some ownership for all of the work they do and effort they put in. That’s what they wanted to do, and we came away with the win.”

This game displayed the team’s growth through all of the ebbs and flows. It was a quick start with six made three-point shots on eight attempts and a literal fight to the finish.

“I think we’re the most connected we’ve been all year, and we want it, so we’re going to go out on the court and play for each other, for our coaches and this means a lot to us,” Tess Myers noted. “We’re going to give it our all, we’ve proven that and we’re ready.”

This game saw multiple Duquesne starters foul out, see a pair of intentional fouls handed out between free throws and the aforementioned foul assessed a shooting foul that was incorrectly reviewed and assessed as a common foul.

Paula Suarez inbounded the ball to Zaza Walton and put up a shot with both Kiaku and Myers in the area, but the shot fell off to the left side of the rim.

“We’re such a veteran group so we’ve been in this position a lot of times, so we’ve been prepared for this moment,” McConnell gleamed. “When it’s time to shine, I think we have that group to pull through and we did today, so I’m really proud.”

5. Monmouth W 69-65 OT Mar. 25– Duquesne got to host a WNIT second round game and for most of it appeared disjointed as it was 16 days between games.

Monmouth had been road warriors, having won each of its past 13 games. Duquesne trailed by eight points with 1:03 remaining and were 99.8% underdogs at that point in time.

Wasylson misplayed the ball on Duquesne’s offensive possession but put a three-point attempt up and it fell. Wasylson would then bury six free throws after attempting five all season.

“Coming down to the end of the game we were down eight and obviously with my career on the line, obviously nobody wants it to end, we have a great team, we all love each other so much and we want to keep this success going as long as we can,” Wasylson determined. “We practice free throws every day and Coach (Rick) Bell tells us to put yourself in game-like scenario where it might happen and that’s what happened today.”

With President Ken Gormley encouraging the students to chant, the Dukes forced overtime where the huddle was encouraged from the finish and the two previous overtime triumphs this season.

Duquesne created slight separation in the overtime period and then Hamilton drew a charge. Fittingly it was Wasylson back on the line to ice the game. In between free throws, she shook her head in disbelief with a clear smile, knowing that the game was won, and Duquesne’s decorated seniors had extended their season into the Super 16.

“No, I wouldn’t have (believed it),” deduced Wasylson on her journey leading to this moment. “Here come the tears. I didn’t think I was going to put on a jersey again. A lot of people do know my story with the blood clot situation. Everybody said I wasn’t going to play again and all my life I’ve proven people wrong. I did that and I especially did that today and I’m very proud of myself.”