Austin Hansen | staff writer

Scoring quick and often has been the clear strategy for the Duquesne women’s basketball team. Offensive firepower was the main reason for Duquesne’s rout of Division II opponent Carnegie Mellon 98-58 on Sunday afternoon at Cooper Fieldhouse, in a contest that featured five players in double-digits and 43.3% shooting from deep. Coming into Tuesday night’s contest, the Dukes were the leading scorers in the Atlantic-10 Conference with just under three weeks until conference play begins on Dec. 29.

Tuesday night’s win over Bucknell was a much different game. Bucknell came into the contest on a five-game winning streak, but the Bison’s streak was no more as the Dukes were victorious 65-48 for their fifth consecutive victory, improving to 7-2 on the young season.

The Dukes were well aware that this game was not to their standards when it came to ball security.

“Our turnovers,” Megan McConnell answered to a question regarding the team’s biggest point of emphasis for the remainder of non-conference play.

Duquesne Head Coach Dan Burt believes that the ​​25 turnovers the Dukes made is not the recipe for success that the team is built upon, but like every other win, he’ll take it.

“A team that’s won five in a row like they have, and has a post player like they do, they played a very good basketball game against us, and were very well prepared, and we played a little bit more their style than ours,” Burt said. “We won, we need to enjoy it…Enjoy it and celebrate it, because life’s too short.”

Three Dukes finished in double figures, and together the three grabbed 17 of Duquesne’s 41 rebounds and 40 of the 65 points scored in the contest by the Dukes. Gabby Hutcherson finished with two 3-pointers and a game-high 16 points, doing so efficiently on 7-of-10 shooting. She also tallied six rebounds and a steal while McConnell added to the statsheet with 13 points, two three-pointers, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. The other Duquesne player to score in double figures was Jerni Kiaku, who finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while shooting 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

The low-scoring affair Tuesday night was full of runs from both the Bison and the Dukes. McConnell, who was involved in the first eight points for the Dukes, started the contest with a 3-point play followed by a 3-pointer, and an assist to Reina Green.

In the minutes following, Bucknell found their scoring touch from beyond the arc as Tuana Coskun cashed in from deep twice and Isabella King added a 3-pointer of her own, giving Bucknell a 12-8 advantage going into the first break in the action.

Duquesne then went on an 18-2 run to separate themselves from Bucknell stretching the Duquesne lead to 12, which was the largest of the first half. The run was led by McConnell, Kiaku and Hutcherson, and it stretched over the later minutes of the first quarter until about the midway point of the second quarter.

It stemmed from an intensified full-court ball pressure from the Dukes, who forced seven turnovers in just over eight minutes of game time. In addition, the Dukes started the second on 5 of 7 shooting from the field, including a McConnell 3-pointer and layup, a layup from Kiaku, and consecutive layups from Hutcherson. It was again the defensive pressure that impacted Duquesne’s run as Bucknell was only able to attempt two shots within the Dukes’ hot start to the second.

Bucknell’s first bucket of the second quarter came from Ashley Sofilkanich, and it sparked a return run from the Bison. The 11-0 run from Bucknell included eight points from Sofilkanich, going 4-for-4 from the line and 2-for-4 from the field.

The second started all Dukes. Kiandra Browne drew an offensive foul and hit from range at the other end of the floor on the next possession. With scores from Hutcherson, Browne again, and Andjela Matic, the Dukes looked to pull away with the help of perfect shooting from the field to start the half.

Yet, the Bison would not go away with 3-pointers and excessive Duquesne turnovers. While the Dukes started the half hot, eight turnovers in the third quarter allowed Bucknell right back into the game.

The fourth quarter featured a different full-court zone pressure with trapping in the corners, a new look from Burt’s defense.

“It’s just a rhythm thing,” Burt said. “If something is not working we are going to try something else.”

It turns out the rhythm change was just what the doctor ordered. Mackenzie Blackford’s 3-pointer, Kiaku’s layup-then -steal leading to her own midrange jumper looked to be the final push the Dukes needed as the Bison took a timeout with 7:42 remaining.

Bucknell would only be able to cut the lead down to nine, as the Duquesne defense stopped it on the majority of its final possessions. Hutcherson’s seven points down the stretch drove home the win.

“We gotta focus in defensively and be a little bit more on top of our scout going into the games,” Hutcherson said. “We’re always happy with a win, we just know how much better we’re supposed to be.”

The Dukes have two remaining non-conference games, both home when they welcome Canisius on Sunday and Bowling Green next week.