Duquesne Dukes Lose Women’s Basketball Season Opener

PITTSBURGH – The Duquesne Dukes women’s basketball team dropped its season opening game 79-62 to the Princeton Tigers.

Picked to finish seventh in the Atlantic 10 in the preseason poll, the Dukes lost their opening game of the season for the first time since Nov. 19 2004 at East Carolina. The last time Duquesne had lost a home opener was Nov. 22 vs Ohio State.

“Princeton is a better basketball team than we are right now,” coach Dan Burt said. “They’re very talented, they’re very experienced and they gave it to us pretty good. I thought we competed at times, but our margin of error with our young lineup is razor thin and we cannot afford missed assignments, missed block outs and frankly to shoot the ball so poorly from the three point line.”

Duquesne had three players reach double figures led by junior guard April Robinson who scored 19 points and had five assists. Sophomore forward Amadea Szamosi scored 12 points and junior transfer guard Deva’Nyar Workman had 10 points.

Princeton was led by Michelle Miller who had 20 points. The Tigers had 23 assists in the game and shot 57.7 percent from the field in the first half.

The Dukes opened the contest shooting 80 percent from the field in the first few minutes of the game. This would taper off however as Duquesne shot 39.3 percent from the field and 4-18 from three point range.

“We didn’t make shots,” said Burt. “We have people that have to learn our offense better and more thoroughly and understand where they need to be. To me this game is not about inexperience, it’s about missed assignments on the offensive end and defensive end.”

Workman was a bright spot for Duquesne as she was able to maneuver around for loose ball rebounds and got to the free throw line a game leading nine times.

“Deva’Nyar gives us the ability to attack the basket, and people have to guard her and play her honest on the three point line,” Burt said. “She’s very shifty and able to get to the rim, draw contact and get to the free throw line. I was really glad to be able to see her be able to do that, I would like to see her finish more plays, but I was happy with her performance today.”

Duquesne next plays ACC opponent Syracuse Wednesday at 7 p.m. and the time to make adjustments and prepare will be short.

“We’re definitely going to be going over things for our practices and I hope that we can improve,” April Robinson said.