#DuqWbb Finishes Second in Maggie Dixon Classic Duquesne Dukes Official Athletic Site

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#DuqWbb Finishes Second in Maggie Dixon Classic Dukes fall to DePaul 88-77 in championship game

The Dukes fell to DePaul 88-77 in the championship game

Nov. 9, 2013

CHICAGO - The Duquesne women's basketball team finished as the runner-up at the 2013 Maggie Dixon Classic. After defeating Cal Poly 84-69 Friday night, the Dukes (1-1) fell to host DePaul 88-77 on Saturday night.

"I'm very proud of our team, the way that they battled the entire game and how hard they played," said head coach Dan Burt. "We came up a little bit short, but we have a lot of good things moving forward."

LINE OF THE NIGHT: Orsi Szecsi 6-9 FG, 20 points

The Dukes were led by Orsi Szecsi who scored a team-high 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Wumi Agunbiade, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, scored 10 as did April Robinson. Jose-Ann Johnson led the Dukes with six rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Big East All-Conference selection Brittany Hrynko led all scorers with 21 points.

With the Dukes trailing 5-4 early in the game, Raegan Moore's and-1 and an Agunbiade jumper were sandwiched between a pair of Szecsi 3-pointers which gave the Dukes an 10-point lead at 15-5 at the 14:35 mark of the half, forcing a DePaul timeout.

The Blue Demons battled back, going on a 17-4 run to take a 27-23 lead at the 8-minute media timeout. Coming out of the stoppage, Duquesne would score 12 of the game's next 13 points, which included two baskets from Angela Heintz and a 3-pointer from Moore, to take a 35-28 with 3:45 remaining in the half.

With the Dukes still up seven points, DePaul got back-to-back 3-pointers from Hrynko and January to close out the 1st half scoring. Duquesne went into halftime leading 39-38.

With DePaul leading 52-50 midway through the second half, a Stasia King turnaround jumper in the paint tied the game at 52-52. The Dukes would tie the contest two more times but could not regain the lead. Duquesne had a chance to take the lead with 5:38 left after a layup by Szecsi made the score 66-65 in DePaul's favor. Szecsi then stole the ball from DePaul's Chanise Jenkins, but the Dukes missed their next two shots. However, from until the 1:38 mark of the 2nd half, it remained a two-possession game. DePaul hit 7-of-8 foul shots in the final minute of play.

As a team, the Dukes had another outstanding shooting performance, making 49.1 percent (28-of-57) of its shots. However, they struggled from the foul line, hitting only 57.1 percent (16-of-28). Duquesne committed 23 turnovers that resulted in 30 DePaul points.

"We shot the ball well from the field tonight and did a lot of very good things, but you can't have 23 turnovers and shoot 57 percent from the free throw line if you want to beat a perennial Top 25 team, especially on the road in their gym," added Burt.

After the Dukes return home from Chicago, they will take to the road again for a Thursday evening matchup at Kent State. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m.