George Mason was able to score four unanswered points in the opening minutes of Thursday night’s game, leading Duquesne 4-0 at the 18:57 mark with a layup by Talisha Watts. That would be the extent of their control in the Duke’s A 10 home opener. Starting with a three-pointer by April Robinson at the 15:59 mark, the Dukes had an 11-0 run ended by a Taylor Dodson jumper cutting the Duke’s lead to 9, 17-8 with 13:15 left in the first half. From then on, it was an all Duquesne game.
Duquesne (9-6 1-1 A-10), with a Deva’Nyar Workman layup extended its lead to 15 points, 25-10 at the midway point in the first half. After a Emile Gronas jumper with no time left on the clock, Duquesne enjoyed a comfortable halftime lead 47-21.
Aided by an aggressive defense led by Belma Nurkic, who ended up with 1 block and 1 steal the Dukes held the Patriots (9-6 1-1 A-10) to shooting 34 percent from the paint and only 11 percent of its 3-pointers in the first half. The Patriots ended up with 33 percent and 27 percent of its 3-pointers.
Also key in defending against the Patroits, the Dukes were able to hold Taylor Brown, the A 10’s leading scorer and 4th in the nation, who coming into Thursday’s game was averaging 24.4 points per game, to just 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Brown led George Mason’s scoring effort.
“We wanted to be physical with her and most importantly keep her in front of us,” said Duquesne’s head Coach Dan Burt about the plan going into the game to defend against Brown.
Going into the second half George Mason never got closer than 30 points to Duquesne, who enjoyed a 40-point lead 83-43, the largest in the game, after a good free throw by Tanesha Sutton with 2:05 remaining in the game.
With 21 points, six rebounds and five assists, Duquesne’s April Robinson led the game’s scoring. In fact, Duquesne ended up with four players in double-digit scoring; Workman with 18, Amadea Szamosi had 12 and Emilie Gronas ended up with 10. Duquesne shot 51 percent from in the paint and 35 percent of its three-pointers.
“Tonight I was very pleased with how we played for two halves,” Burt said. “We never let up and gave a great effort and I was happy with our performance from the first player to the last player that got in.”
This is the sixth time this season Duquesne has scored at least 40 points in the 1st half and the eighth time this season Duquesne has scored 80+ points in a game.
On Sunday Duquesne faces formidable Dayton (10-4, 1-1 A-10) on the road with tipoff at 2:00 p.m.
