Women remain undefeated at home

Home is a good place to be for the women's basketball team who extended their win streak over the George Washington Colonials (9-10, 2-3) to four games Saturday, with a 76-50 victory and improved their unblemished home record to 10-0.

"For teams coming into our home court they know that we are undefeated [at home] and it will take a lot to beat us," Wumi Agunbiade said.

The Dukes (14-5, 2-2) dominated the lane with 36 points in the paint and 45 rebounds.

"It was important for us to get down in the paint being that we had the size advantage." Agunbiade said.

Their coach, Suzie McConell-Serio, said it was a focus to hit the glass hard.

"It's always an emphasis [to] rebound the basketball. With playing the defense we are playing the thing is we have to find someone to box out and rebound," McConnell-Serio said.

McConnell-Serio praised the "Wo-Show" for their performance, as Szecsi and Agunbiade combined for 41 points.

Agunbiade led the show with 21 points, going 10-for-10 from the field and seven rebounds. It was the first time in her career she ended a game without a miss from the field. Szecsi had 20 points, 11 rebounds and a team-high three steals.

"It's huge. She did a much better job of keeping it simple." McConnell-Serio said referring to Agunbiade's career performance. "She looked like the Wumi of old… You don't get better than 100 percent, especially 10-for-10"

With 16:05 to play in the first, Alex Gensler drained a three, stole the inbounds pass, rebounded her own miss and made a lay-up giving the Dukes an 11-7 lead, a lead they would not return the rest of the game. Gensler moved into 12th place all-time in Duquesne history with her eight-point performance. She made two buckets from behind the arc leaving her only 14 threes away from capturing the all-time Duquesne record. She also had seven assists matching her career high.

McConnell-Serio commented on Gensler's and what Gensler means to the team.

"Alex has grown into a great player. She came in very talented, very skilled, but has turned into a great leader, a great scorer for us, a better shooter, a better defender, and she is someone that makes players around her better. She is distributing the basketball. Teams are now keying in on her because of the way she can score [which] is opening up things up for other people… She's a key to a lot of the things we do."

Carly Vendemia gave the Dukes a great performance off the bench with 12 points and 7 rebounds. She also matched a season-high four free throws made.

"[She] makes things happen at both ends of the floor. She rebounds the ball for us, she can score and you even saw her take a three today … She's just so strong and when she gets in the game we want to get her the basketball in the block as much as we can. Coming off the bench I'll take 12 [points] and 7 [rebounds] any night of the week." McConnell-Serio said.

Leading the way for the Colonials was Megan Nipe with 14 points including two 3's. No other Colonial registered in double figures.

"Our players stepped up and really did a good job of challenging shots and rebounding the basketball and taking away driving lanes." McConnell-Serio said.

Jocelyn Floyd, who has taken over some of the point guard duties from injured Vaness Abel was held in check in the first half after picking up two quick fouls. McConnell-Serio commented on Abel's knee injury.

"She got the stitches out. She's still in the brace. Today she increased it to 60 degrees and she will go to 90 in a few days … A couple more weeks at least," she said.

The Dukes host the UMass Minutewomen (6-13, 1-3) on Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. in the A.J. Palumbo Center.