Next up:                              Duquesne Dukes
Time:                                   January 11, 2025; 12 PM
Venue:                                 Charles E Smith Center – Washington DC
2023-24 Record:                 21-13 (13-5 in A10)
2025 Projection:                 6th
Current Record:                 10-5   
OOC Record:                      9-2   
A10 Record:                       1-3
Common OOC:                  None
Last Time Out:                   79-69 win over GW in 2023-24 (at Duquesne)
Broadcast:                         ESPN+ 

Opponent Summary: GW hosts the Duquesne Dukes Saturday afternoon in the only regular season meeting between the two squads. After a successful 9-2 OOC that included wins over Pitt and Princeton, the Dukes stumbled to start their A10 slate, losing their first 3 contests in conference play. On Wednesday, they scored a big upset, defeating St. Joe’s in Philadelphia. Duquesne is led by one of the A10’s best all-around players in 5’7” senior Megan McConnell, a preseason A10 1st team selection and the current scoring leader in A10 at 20.2 ppg. She also leads the A10 in assists (5.5 apg) and steals (4.3 spg), and is 8th in rebounding (7.3 rpg). Her running mate at guard, Jerni Kiaku, can also fill it up, averaging 13.8 ppg on 51.4% field goal accuracy. The Dukes front court features a pair of 6’2” forwards in Gabby Hutcherson, a graduate transfer from Pitt averaging 7.9 ppg and 4.2 rpg, and Kiandra Browne, who contributes 7.4 ppg and 3.9 rpg. As a team, Duquesne leads the A10 is scoring at 75.8 ppg, while allowing 67 ppg. They shoot with 43.2% accuracy from the field (32.8% from distance) and have a respectable assist-to-turnover ratio of .9.
 
About the game:  After a tough road loss at Fordham, GW is still searching for ways to cure an anemic offense. Duquesne, fresh off their upset win of St. Joseph’s, looks to continue to their winning ways. For GW, the defensive focus has to be on McConnell and Kiaku, but that’ll be easier said than done. McConnell has a nonstop motor and is capable of playing a full 40 minutes in a game. While her scoring and playmaking account for over 40% of Duquesne’s offense, her rebounding and steals key a Dukes’ defense that scores 31% (23.5 ppg) of their points off opponents’ turnovers. It is imperative that GW take care of the ball and limit easy scores by Duquesne. GW’s offense will be hard pressed to outscore the Dukes’ potent offense, but if the Revs can limit their turnovers and take good shots, they can take advantage of a Duquesne team that is in the bottom quartile of the A10 in scoring defense and make it a game. GW’s offense has been hampered by excessive and careless dribbling, questionable attacks to the rim, poor 3-point shooting judgement, and rushed interior passing. All have led to costly turnovers at times and prevented GW from either increasing a lead or cutting into a deficit. Although improvements have surfaced in certain of these areas from game to game, so far, GW has been unable to achieve a consistent level of proficiency in any of them. If Planes Fortuny and/or Sierra Vargas are healthy, they could give the Revs a boost, but the bottom line is that the current core rotation has to play better.
 
For GW at this stage of the season, against the lower tier A10 teams, there is a fine line between winning and losing games. Getting on the right side of the line is where coaching comes in. The Dukes have shown that they can play down to level of their competition, but GW has to step up to make this a competitive game.