PITTSBURGH – Belma Nurkic scored a game-high 18 points – including five 3-pointers – and Wumi Agunbiade added 15 as the Duquesne women’s basketball won its seventh straight game to improve to 8-1 after defeating the University of Pittsburgh 70-61 in the annual City Game on Saturday afternoon.
Orsi Szecsi and April Robinson each scored 13 and Jocelyn Floyd recorded a game-high 11 rebounds in the win – the fourth straight over the Panthers. Vanessa Abel, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA late Friday, played six minutes and has one rebound.
Pitt’s Asia Logan recorded a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds and Brianna Kiesel scored 17 for the Panthers who fall to 6-3 on the year.
Pitt came out of the gates by scoring the first eight points of the game and by the 17:10 mark of the first half had taken an 11-2 lead. Duquesne would counter with a 13-2 run to take a 15-13 lead after Ahjah Hall’s jumper at 13:28. Robinson’s 3-pointer at 7:18 made the score 28-20, giving the Dukes its largest lead of the half at eight points. A pair of Logan foul shots closed out the first half scoring as the Panthers cut the deficit to three points at 35-32.
The second half remained a 2-possession contest until a layup by Orsi Szecsi with 11:16 remaining made the score 47-40. Hall’s layup at 7:39 put the Dukes up by nine points before a pair of Logan jumpers and an “old fashioned” 3-point play by Kiesel cut the lead to two points at 54-52 with 6:22 left. But this is as close as Pitt would come to tying as a big 3-pointer by Robinson as the shot clock expired with 2:31 remaining put DU up eight points at 63-55. The Dukes held the Panthers without a field goal the rest of the game.
“Our players came out from the start ready to play, there was a focus both defensively and offensively – we knew Pitt was going to come in here with a lot of energy and emotion because of the rivalry,” said head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio.
“Everybody made plays, Wumi on the inside, Belma on the perimeter, Ahjah had great takes to the basket, Jocelyn made plays, Orsi hit a couple of big shots and made stops. It was just a great team effort the entire game. I’m very proud the way we executed down the stretch,” added Coach Serio.
As a team, Duquesne had a season-best 19 assists (six from both Robinson and Floyd) and tied its season-high with seven blocks (Agunbiade led with three).
Up next for the Dukes is James Madison on Dec. 16th. JMU (3-5) was the 2012 Post-season WNIT Runner-up. Tipoff time is at 2:00 p.m.
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