Duquesne WBB Outrebounded, Outclassed By UMass

Late in the second quarter, Duquesne’s Megan McConnell attempted to connect with Gabby Hutcherson, but the two did not connect, much to the former’s chagrin.

This would be par for the course as a second-consecutive lackluster first quarter, led to a third consecutive setback, with Massachusetts doing the deed 72-52 Wednesday evening at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Duquesne is now 2-5 at home in Atlantic 10 play.

“Tonight was certainly not a very good night,” Duquesne coach Dan Burt opened. “Our effort was embarrassing in the first two quarters. When you look at the last two games, the four quarters against Richmond and two to start this game, is some of the poorest basketball that I’ve been associated with in my 18 years of being at Duquesne. It falls on me. I think today youth is never to blame because we’re in February and freshmen can’t be freshmen, but today though was one of those days where you saw youth being exposed. Our lack of size was something UMass exposed. If you don’t have size, you better have a whole lot of fight and grit. We’re at a tipping point, and that tipping point is what do these people want their season to be? Are we going to be distracted or be focused and we’ll answer that tomorrow when we go to practice.”

Duquesne (15-9/6-7 A-10) was paced by Megan McConnell’s 15 points, five assists and seven steals. In this game, McConnell became the second player in Dukes history to score 1,000 career points and rebounds. She also passed April Robinson for fifth place on the all-time scoring list.

Andjela Matic added 15 points, while grabbing six rebounds. Duquesne’s bench outscored UMass 27-3, but the 52 points represented a season low.

UMass (14-11/9-5 A-10) saw Stefanie Kulesza recorded a double-double consisting of her 14 points, while her 22 rebounds tied for the most by an opponent against Duquesne in a single game. For an overwhelming majority of the game, Kulesza outrebounded the Dukes by herself.

Megan Olbrys posted 20 points and nine rebounds, while Allie Palmieri netted 14 points and Yahmani McKayle 13.

UMass shot 45.6% from the field and outrebounded 50-23, 42-14 was the paint advantage.

The start of this game was similar to the Richmond game, as the Minutewomen scored the game’s first nine points and overwhelmed the Dukes on the offensive boards as Burt spent an early timeout.

UMass recorded seven offensive rebounds to Duquesne’s zero after 10 minutes.

Duquesne was 1-for-11 from the field in the first quarter and after the period ended, a potential second make, a Hutcherson three-point shot was overruled as a shot clock violation.

It was a 19-5 UMass lead after one quarter of play.

The second quarter was really an extension of the first. Though Duquesne shot the ball better, it got outscored 23-11, trailing 42-16 at halftime.

“They played zone today and we passed the ball around the arc, once we beat their press,” explained Burt. “We didn’t do a very good job of beating their press with speed and aggression. We would break the press and never turn around and face the basket and attack before they could set their defense. In the first two quarter we never got the ball to the middle of the court more than three times. When you’re passing it around the arc, you’re playing right into what UMass wants you to do. I would play zone (against us) every game because all we do is just swing it around the arc. Even when are open, we have a tendency to feel like we’re not and have to shoot it. We have to get more high-post touches, that has to happen.”

Duquesne did tie UMass in the third quarter as Fatou Sane made a pair of free throws, but that still left the score at 59-33.

Once again as was the case in the Richmond game, Duquesne saved its best effort for the final quarter, winning it.

The Dukes had the lead cut to 16 points with 5:31 remaining in regulation, but McKayle’s three-pointer brought the advantage back up to 19.

Duquesne tried to get back in the game, but time was not in its side.

“There’s a sense of urgency in the third and fourth quarter,” Burt determined. “We got embarrassed, we were embarrassed again. There’s no other way to cut it and I can’t go out there and box out for you. I can help with what we want to do from an offensive standpoint or change the defenses up, but in our system, you have to play incredibly hard. We didn’t do that. I don’t have a lot more answers, this is an emotional thing right now after a coach, coming in five minutes after being in a locker room and you lost a difficult game and you’re not 100% sure because you haven’t watched the film. We as coaches have to find the lineup that works, offense that works and defense that works. At the end of the day that falls and rests on me.”

The Dukes next take to the road for a pair of games, with the first being Saturday at Loyola Chicago, a contest televised by ESPN+ which tips off at 2 p.m.

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