PITTSBURGH, PA – The Vermont women's basketball team came up just short in a hard-fought battle against Duquesne 56-54 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. The loss snaps the Catamounts six game win streak and drops them to 7-4 while the Dukes improve to 8-2 on the season with the win.
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score | Box Score (.pdf)
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"Today was a tough loss. There is a lot to take from this game and we will be a better team after this game than we were before it," said Mayer Head Women's Basketball Coach Alisa Kresge. "I am proud of how our team competed for 40 minutes, but we will not settle for moral victories.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Both teams struggled to find their offense in the first quarter with Duquesne outscoring Vermont 12-9, and shooting only 6-18, but the Catamounts shot just 3-13. Neither team were able to make a three point shot in the first quarter and both teams traded baskets with two ties. Duquesne reached the largest margin in the quarter when Ayanna Townsend made a layup with 3:45 remaining to put the Dukes up 8-4.
• Vermont battled back with a Catherine Gilwee jumper and 3-4 from the free throw line from Anna Olson and Maria Myklebust to cut the score to three, 12-9 after the first stanza.
• Despite the shooting struggles Vermont continued to battle in the second quarter going on a 12-6 run over the first 6:35 of the second quarter to flip the script and put the UVM lead at 21-18 with 3:25 remaining in the first half. During the run Emma Utterback and Gilwee each contributed five points while holding the Dukes to just 2-9 shooting and 0-4 from three point range.
• The two teams traded blows in the final 3:25 with Vermont holding a 7-5 edge to take a 28-23 lead into the halftime break.
• Duquesne was able to go on a 5-0 run to start the second half and knot the score up at 28-28 with 8:16 remaining, but again Vermont had an answer from three with Delaney Richason knocking down a deep shot to put UVM up 31-28.
• The two teams battled over the next eight minutes with Duquesne holding a 10-8 advantage over that period to make it a 39-38 game going into the final period.
• Both the Dukes and the Catamounts continued their battle in the fourth quarter with the two scrapping to an 11-11 tie over the first 6:05 of the final quarter to keep the score at 50-49 in favor of UVM. Vermont went 5-8 from the field with Utterback scoring six and Gilwee contributing five while the Dukes went 5-10 from the field led by Amaya Hamilton with five and Precious Johnson with four.
• A pair of Naelle Bernard free throws with 3:30 left helped spark a last second run for the Dukes to outscore Vermont 7-4 over the final three and a half minutes to seal a 56-54 victory.
• Gilwee had a three point attempt from the left wing on the last play of the game, but it clanged off the back iron and Duquesne held on to the victory.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Gilwee led the way with 17 points on 50 percent shooting with three rebounds, including 3-6 from deep.
• Utterback also had 17 points to go along with one assist and four rebounds.
• Richason had seven points and a team-high nine rebounds to go with one block.
• Despite the loss the Catamounts held the Dukes to just 31.3 percent shooting from the field and 10.0 percent from three point range.

 
WHO'S NEXT
Following Saturday's matchup, the Catamounts will return to New England to face another Northeast Conference foe in Sacred Heart on the road on Sunday, December 18. The start time for that game is scheduled for 2 p.m. with voice of Catamounts women's basketball Ryan Zimmerman on the call on WVMT.