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Duquesne Women's Basketball

Duquesne WBB’s Missed Threes, Free Throws Lead To Third Consecutive Home Loss

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Photo credit: Pittsburgh Sports Now/Zachary Weiss

Following college basketball games, a 10-minute cooling off period is observed regardless of whether a team wins or loses, but after an 80-71 setback to Dayton Wednesday night at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, Dan Burt did not adhere to this, the frustration evident on his face.

Duquesne, which was 8-0 at home coming into conference play, have lost all three such contests since. This game had 14 lead changes and 10 ties.

“Tonight, I have a lot of mixed emotions,” Burt revealed. “I’m disappointed with our energy. When you shoot 9-for-43 from the three-point line, it becomes very difficult to press, when you’re pressing off misses. We were not able to get into our press much because we took a lot of threes and didn’t make those threes. A lot were good shots, but didn’t fall.”

“We’re in January and there’s a lot of ‘my bads.’ We had three baseline out of bounds plays where we were not prepared, and they scored three straight times and you could say that was the game also. To say that I’m disappointed, I am, obviously it’s a loss and at home, where we had been good until recently. We didn’t do the things you need to do to win… We had to play out of scramble mode and that didn’t work well for us tonight.”

Duquesne (11-6/2-4 Atlantic 10) was led by Jerni Kiaku’s 18 points. Megan McConnell chimed in with 15 points, six rebounds and six assists. With her six assists, McConnell surpassed hall of famer April Robinson for second in program history. Gabby Hutcherson and Andjela Matic added 13 and 10 points respectively off the bench. Nadia Moore contributed nine rebounds.

The Dukes lost the rebounding battle 45-44, but did have a 19-9 edge on the offensive end, though some of this was due to its 33.3% shooting clip.

It should be noted that last season’s Duquesne team overwhelmed Dayton 70-42 in both team’s conference openers.

Dayton (11-6/5-1 A-10) saw Nicole Stephens post a career-high 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Ivy Wolf scored all 13 of her points in the second half, while Olivia Leung contributed 10 points off the bench. Rikki Harris had a nine-point, 10-rebound effort.

Both teams traded the lead back and forth in the first quarter, but a crucial 10-0 Duquesne run closed the first quarter. Perhaps most noteworthy of the run was the Dukes sinking each of its last five free throws, including Kiandra Browne’s trio as she was fouled beyond the arc.

Duquesne led 21-14 after the first quarter.

The second quarter began fairly similarly to its predecessor as Browne was fouled on another three-point shot. This time, she missed all three free throws, her frustration growing on each.

Duquesne would shoot 12-for-25 from the free-throw line for the game.

“We can talk about our free throws, if we make them at a clip that is acceptable to Division I teams, around 75%, we would have won the game,” remarked Burt.

That seven-point lead at the end of the first quarter would be Duquesne’s largest for the entire game.

Dayton would reclaim the lead with just over four minutes remaining in the second quarter when Molly O’Riordan completed a 6-0 Flyers run.

Neither team could shake the other which meant both were tied at 35 following 20 minutes of play.

Duquesne scored the half’s first five points and appeared poised to go off to the races as it forced a turnover on the defensive end, instead a layup was missed, and Dayton began to get back into form.

Dayton led by four late in the quarter before Hutcherson sank a three-point shot. Down by two, Duquesne had a chance to tie the game but faltered twice at the free-throw line, allowing the Flyers to remain in front 59-57.

Duquesne opened the fourth quarter 1-for-13 from the field, a figure which included 10 three-point shot attempts.

Dayton used this to go on a 12-3 run, which ended with an Arianna Smith post field goal, and Burt called a timeout.

Duquesne’s response was a 7-0 run, which culminated in McConnell burying a three-point shot, grabbing a steal and converting a layup as now it was the Flyers who wanted to take a timeout.

On Dayton’s possession, Harris was at the end of the shot clock and buried a step-back three-point shot and the Flyers never looked back.

When Dayton came away with a rebound and 18 seconds remained, Burt instructed his team not to foul.

Duquesne will next face Rhode Island Sunday afternoon at 12:05 in a contest carried by CBS Sports Network.

Following the game, Burt mentioned he brought up the many missed three-point shots and free throws to his team.

When asked if there were any positives he could take away from the game, he paused for 11 seconds before answering.

“Nothing,” came Burt’s reply. “Nothing. We lost. There’s not a lot of moral victories out of this one. Nothing.”

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker

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