The Duquesne Dukes rode a bus to Morgantown, West Virginia, hoping to extend thier WNIT run, but a 60-39 loss to West Virginia on Thursday meant an hour plus season-ending bus ride back to Pittsburgh.
Duquesne [23-11] started the game with an Amadea Szamosi lay-up and then took a 4-3 lead when Jose-Ann Johnson hit a jumper. Little did the Dukes know, that would be their last lead.
West Virginia [21-14] quickly responded with a 13-3 run in the next 5:14 to lead by nine and take control. While Duquesne cut the deficit to five points on two separate occasions in the half, the Mountaineers quickly countered in both instances and grew the lead to 27-16 with 5:13 to play.
“They are bigger, stronger, longer and really athletic,” Dukes coach Dan Burt said. “All of the above makes it very difficult to score. They work so hard at denying you the ball that it’s difficult to get open. You expend a lot of energy trying to complete a pass or shoot.”
The Mountaineers led 35-21 at halftime. WVU was a +1 in rebounds after the opening 20 minutes, however emerged victorious 49-38 in the statistic.
“They just wear you down with the size and strength,” said Burt. “We did not block out well, there were too many possessions of us passively blocking out. I won’t fault our kids, it’s been a great run but we just ran into a better team.”
Guard April Robinson scored nine of her 14 points in the second half to lead the team. Senior guard Belma Nurkic grabbed eight rebounds in her final collegiate game. Averee Fields on 8-of-13 shooting led the Mountaineer with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Robinson scored the first five points of the second half cutting the deficit to nine points, however that was the closest Duquesne got. In the next 4:14 the Mountaineers went on a 10-2 run to lead by 17.
The loss ends the collegiate careers of Nurkic, Johnson, Olivia Bresnahan and Stasia King. These seniors won 87 games together, one shy of the most won by a senior class in program history.
“This team has come further along than any team I’ve been associated with. We were unknowns,but, and that is a big but, we had kids who were tough and gritty both physically and mentally,” said Burt. “All four seniors were high basketball IQ kids who know basketball well. They represented themselves, their families and our Duquesne family very well. They will arguably go down in Duquesne basketball history as having the best ever.”
Next season, Duquesne will return 60.1 percent of its scoring and 55.4 percent of its rebounds.
