Women win over LaSalle behind Vendemia and Szecsi

Four Dukes scored in double digits as the Duquesne women's basketball team trumped La Salle 82-52 Saturday afternoon.

Orsi Szecsi had a career-high 25 points off of the bench and Carly Vendemia posted a career-high 15 points. Joining them in double digits were Alex Gensler with 11 points and Wumi Agunbiade with 10.

Vendemia also posted her first career double-double with 13 rebounds and was in the starting lineup for the fourth straight game. Vendemia took the starting position from Szecsi after Szecsi scored 13 points in three straight games.

Coach Suzie McConnell-Serio was proud of Vendemia's effort.

"Having great contributions from Carly, it's something [career-high points] that she's capable of," McConnell-Serio said. "Some of those shots she could have finished and she could have had more points, but that's an impressive double-double … Carly provides so much energy on both ends of the floor for us."

The Dukes won the rebound battle 48-38 with 23 offensive rebounds and 25 defensive. Six of the 23 offensive rebounds were by Vendemia, four of which were off of a sequence of five shots by Vendemia herself.

Even though Szecsi scored 25 points, she said Saturday's game was a team effort and credited them with assisting her and Vendemia.

"It was all about the team, they find us and I give the team a lot of credit because they did a really good job of finding both of us," Szecsi said. "They found me a block, they found me on the outside [for the shots]."

Vendemia agreed.

"It's a team effort. Every time you get the ball, unless you're getting it off of an offensive rebound, it's coming from somebody," Vendemia said. "In order to get the ball and take it to the hoop you have to acknowledge the person that's giving you the pass."

McConnell-Serio cited the win as a part of a defensive surge.

"[I'm] very pleased overall. A win is a win. I thought our players came into today with a great focus, great energy defensively against a team that really concerned me with match-ups," McConnell-Serio said. "There was a focus defensively and really I thought from the beginning that our players set the tone defensively."

The Dukes have two more games in regular season conference play before heading to the A-10 championship in Philadelphia and are taking the remainder of the season a game at a time.

"We have the opportunity with the win today coming into the game … we were tied for seventh [in the conference]," McConnell-Serio said. "Right now, this gives us the advantage of a tie-breaker... It's all about tie-breakers. We're just trying to inch our way up in the standings to give ourselves a higher seed."

McConnell-Serio added that it's coming down to final leg of the season.

"You talk about going down the stretch and you hope that you're playing your best basketball, and we've had a number of players step up offensively and defensively for us," McConnell-Serio said.

This was the team's 12th game without senior point guard Vanessa Abel.

The Dukes next play at Richmond on Wednesday then return home for Abel and Gensler's last game at the A.J. Palumbo Center on Saturday for Senior Day at 2 p.m..