Women's Basketball Opens up A-10 Season With 56-54 Win at Xavier
Jan. 13, 2013
CINCINNATI - Xavier's Aliyah Zantt's jumper as time expired did not fall as the Duquesne women's basketball team opened up Atlantic 10 Conference play with a 56-54 victory over the Musketeers on Sunday afternoon. This was their first-ever victory at the Cintas Center. With the win, the Dukes improve to 12-3 overall, 1-0 in the A-10 while XU falls to 6-9 overall and 0-1 in the A-10. April Robinson led DU with 15 points. Jocelyn Floyd added 11 to go along with six steals. Wumi Agunbiade grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Xavier was led by Amber Gray with 15 points. Zantt added 12 for the Musketeers who have dropped its last three games. Both teams started off the first half slow, shooting a combined 3-of-11 from the floor. At the under 16 media time out, the score was tied 5-5. Leading 16-11 with 8:41 remaining, the Dukes would go on a 16-2 run over the next 5:01 to take its largest lead of the half - 19 points at 32-13. DU would take a 15 point lead into halftime, 34-19. Duquesne opened up the second half by hitting three of its first four shots, which gave them its largest lead of the game at 20 points, 41-21 with 17:03 remaining. However, the Dukes would make only three field goals over the next eight minutes and with 9:26 left, Ashley Wanninger's 3-pointer cut the deficit to singles digits at 48-39. With 1:16 to play, Ty O'Neill's foul shot made it a one possession game at 52-49. The Dukes lead was cut to two points after another O'Neill free throw, 52-50 with 27 seconds remaining. Robinson was fouled on the inbound pass and made both foul shots to put DU up 54-50. Briana Glover answered with a layup with 13 seconds remaining making the score 54-52. Xavier used its final timeout before Belma Nurkic was fouled and made both free throws. The Dukes were up 56-52 with 11 seconds left. Shatyra Hawkes answered with a layup with six seconds remaining making the score 56-54. Robinson was fouled on the inbounds pass, but missed both shots from the line. Zantt made the rebound and went the length of the court, but her buzzer beater did not fall. As a team, Duquesne struggled from both the foul line and floor, making only 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) and 21-of-66 (31.8 percent) respectively. The Dukes return home on Wednesday night to face Saint Louis (7-9, 1-0 A-10). Tipoff at the Palumbo Center is 7:00 p.m.
GAME NOTES
Duquesne at Xavier
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