Jack Morgan | staff writer

The Duquesne women’s basketball team is heating up at the right time, just in time for the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament next week. This week, it took down Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon on Senior Day and followed that up with a win on Wednesday morning over rival St. Bonaventure on Education Day.

Duquesne’s win over Saint Louis featured 22 points from superstar senior Megan McConnell. She was honored on Saturday along with Gabby Hutcherson, Kiandra Browne and Kaitlyn Ammons. The seniors led an all-around effort, resulting in an 84-72 win.

Once McConnell checked out for the final time, she kissed the floor as a nod to her brother T.J., who did the same at Arizona years ago after transferring there from Duquesne.

“I actually asked him if I could do the same because Duquesne has meant the world to me,” McConnell said. “I just wanted to show everyone how much Duquesne meant to me, so that’s why I did it.”

In the first quarter, the Dukes jumped out to a 17-7 advantage early with Jerni Kiaku scoring 8 points in the first 6:34. The Billikens tightened things up and cut the lead to 22-15 at quarter’s end. In the second, Duquesne wasted no time putting things away. In the remaining 7:09 of the first half, the Dukes outscored the Billikens 22-3. The scoreline continued to spiral out of control for SLU, and by the end of the third, it was down by 23.

Duquesne Head Coach Dan Burt said the win was a blessing after an unkind February for the Dukes.

“We led for 39 minutes today, and really kind of asserted ourselves throughout the game,” Burt said. “We shot the ball really well, outrebounded a really athletic team with better size than us, and 21 assists on 27 baskets.”

On Wednesday, Duquesne continued their winning ways with a 73-48 drubbing of the Bonnies. McConnell had 25 points and was among three that put up 10-plus. The other two were Hutcherson with 15 and Kiaku with 10.

The game started at 11 a.m., and Duquesne found morning juice from the young fans from elementary schools on Education Day. A Cooper Fieldhouse record was set with 3,115 fans in attendance. The atmosphere was loud and raucous throughout.

“Simply incredible, electric atmosphere, more than 3,000 screaming kids that were really dialed in with great music and great activities during the halftimes and timeouts,” Burt said. “The reason why I want to recognize them more than anything is because when I started here 18 years ago, there might have been 200 people in the stands at this time of the year, and we had stands that had yellow police tape around it because the stands were broken, and we have come so far as a university and as an athletic department.”

The Dukes came out firing on all cylinders once again. After Mackenzie Pettinelli gave the Bonnies a 13-11 lead, Duquesne fired back with a three from Andjela Matic to take a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. It stretched the lead out to 14 at halftime.

In the second, the Dukes pushed away even further. After the lead was cut to 12, they heated up and made it 53-34 thanks to a 10-3 push in just 1:55. Once the third quarter ended, it was 59-40 and Duquesne was able to pile on in the fourth. It ended the game with its largest lead of the day at 26.

In the paint, the Dukes were strong inside, outrebounding the Bonnies 38-24 and outscoring them by 18.

“Your post play today was 9 for 17 and 4 for 9 from the 3-point line,” Burt said. “So you have to feel really good about [Hutcherson and Browne].”

Duquesne closes out its A-10 schedule in Fairfax against George Mason on Saturday. The Patriots are 14-3 in conference and will undoubtedly be a tough challenge heading into the conference tournament as Duquesne hopes to secure a second-round seed.