Women blow by Bulls

The women's basketball team won their 10th straight home opener and fourth under Suzie McConnell-Serio with Monday night's 90-46 victory over Buffalo.

Freshman Belma Nurkic and sophomore Wumi Agunbiade led the Duquesne women's basketball team with 16 points apiece. Also in double figures for the Dukes (2-0) were senior Alex Gensler with 13 points and sophomore Orsi Szecsi with 11 points.

The Dukes only trailed for a total of five seconds after Buffalo got the first bucket and over the final nine minutes of the first half to the first minute of the second, the Dukes scored 33 unanswered points. The Dukes largest lead came with 1:48 remaining, when they were ahead by 46 points.

McConnell-Serio didn't notice how many points her team scored during the run.

"I didn't really know that the run was 33-0. I knew that they hadn't scored since the 11th minute mark of the first half," McConnell-Serio said.

The run didn't make the Dukes play any differently.

"Going into the second half, we just had the mindset that it was 0-0, and we had to come out with the same energy, because we knew they were going to come out fired up and trying to come back," Gensler said.

Defense was the main thing the Dukes wanted to improve after their Nov. 11 74-70 win over St. Francis.

"I think we played well compared to last game, especially on defense," Agunbiade said. "We're communicating more, which is great."

McConnell-Serio agreed.

"An emphasis coming into tonight was defense. Our post players did a great job of hedging. Our guards did a better job of stopping penetration," McConnell-Serio said.

McConnell-Serio said her team also did a good job forcing turnovers.

"They had 35 turnovers," she said. "That was great for us to see on the stat sheet, that we were pressuring them and forcing them and disrupting their offense."

The Dukes had 36 rebounds to Buffalo's 38, an area that McConnell-Serio believes the team needs to work on.

"We gave up 12 offensive rebounds, and we were out-rebounded. Long shots create long rebounds, so I think we need to do a better job of rebounding long distance," McConnell-Serio said.

The Dukes dominated on offense, shooting 36-for-70 (51.4 percent) from the field to Buffalo's 14-for-47 (29.8 percent). The team sunk three 3-pointers and were 15-for-22 from the free-throw line. Agunbiade was the Dukes' best contributor from the line, making 6 of 7.

McConnell-Serio believes the Dukes made great strides offensively.

"We executed some plays that we had been working on, and players are getting more comfortable learning our system," McConnell-Serio said. "It was just a great win, a great team win. We had great contributions from everyone who stepped on the floor tonight."

The Dukes next play at North Dakota on Nov. 20 followed by a game at North Dakota State on Nov. 22. The team returns home on Nov. 27 to take on Davidson at 2 p.m.