PITTSBURGH - Down by as many as 21 in the second half, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team cut the gap to seven points with under three minutes to play. Despite holding Duquesne to 26.4 percent shooting, the Hawks couldn't complete the comeback as they fell, 63-54, Sunday afternoon at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
Behind an 8-2 spurt to start the second half, Duquesne (11-7, 3-2 Atlantic 10) opened a 36-15 lead with 14:01 to play.
Sparked by a basket by from graduate student Ashley Robinson and a three-pointer from sophomore Mackenzie Rule, Saint Joseph's answered with a 9-0 run to make it a 36-24 contest on a jumper by Natasha Cloud with 11:50 to play.
Duquesne pushed its lead back to 18, 44-26, but the Hawks refused to give in and slowly chipped the distance back to 10, 49-39.
Following a Dukes' basket, Rule answered with her third three on the day and Cloud hit a jumper to make it 51-44 with 2:45 to play.
That would be as close as SJU (5-12, 1-4 A-10) would get though as Duquesne went 2-for-3 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line to close out the game.
In the first half the Hawks struggled on offense, falling behind 11-1 as they went 0-for-5 from the floor and turned the ball over six times over the opening seven minutes.
Looking for its first field goal of the game, Saint Joseph's responded by going 3-for-5 from the floor for a 6-0 run as a layup by Ciara Andrews at 10:18 brought the Hawks within 11-7.
Duquesne answered with another 11-1 run to take a 24-8 edge on a pair of free throws by Deva'Nyaw Workman with 3:43 to go in the half. Turnovers again plagued the Hawks as they coughed the ball up six times and went 0-for-5 from the field as the Dukes built up their biggest lead of the half.
For the game, Saint Joseph's shot 43.1 percent overall (22-for-51), hit 5-for-9 from behind the arc and 5-for-9 from the foul line. After shooting just 26.3 percent from the floor (5-for-19), 0-for-3 from three-point range in the first half, the Hawks responded going 17-for-32 from the field (53.1 percent), including 5-for-6 from three-point range in the second stanza.
Individually, Andrews had a game-high 17 points, while Cloud finished with a game-high nine assists and three steals and added 14 points. Coming off the bench, Rule was 3-for-3 from three-point range for a career-high nine points and added two assists and two rebounds.
At the other end, Duquesne was held to just 19-for-72 shooting (26.4 percent) and 5-for-20 from three-point range. The Dukes however finished 20-for-8 from the foul line (71.4 percent), had a 55-35 edge in rebounding and scored 23 points off 18 SJU turnovers. Belma Nurkic and April Robinson has 12 points apiece for SJU, while Amadea Szamosi had a game-high 15 rebounds to go with 11 points.
Saint Joseph's returns to action next Saturday when it hosts St. Bonaventure at 2 p.m.
