1 of 1- xAC
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GW versus Duquesne Game Thread
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.
- gwfan25
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Re: GW versus Duquesne Game Thread
No words...
- xAC
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Re: GW versus Duquesne Game Thread
Final Result: Duquesne easily romps past GW 97-55.
GW’s starting lineup for today: Engel, Lewis, Matthews, Mott, and Sierra-Vargas. The Duke’s literally raced to a 11-2 lead with the first 2.5 minutes of the game and forcing an early GW timeout. After the timeout, GW’s poor offensive execution led to numerous easy transition scores for Duquesne, followed by a 3-point barrage that produced a huge 30-9 1st quarter lead. GW turnovers led to 18 points for Duquesne in the initial 10 minutes. The 2nd quarter started with more of the same as Duquesne increased the lead to 36-12 with 4:58 left in the half. GW had no answers and continued to turn the ball over. The game at this point was effectively decided as Duquesne went into the break with a 44-16 lead. The key stats for the 1st half-- 19 GW turnovers leading to 24 points for Duquesne. Andrews led GW with 5 points, while Duquesne spread the scoring around with Kiaku leading the way with 10 points. Things improved for GW in the 3rd quarter, as Engel got hot, but Duquesne was still able to increase the lead to 63-30 at the 4:06 mark. GW closed out the quarter strong, scoring 27 points, but the defense could not stop the Duquesne perimeter attack, and the Dukes led 74-43. In the 4th quarter GW was just trying to keep up, with the Dukes taking a 87-52 lead into the final 4:42 of the game. Up by 30+ points, Duquesne continued to full court press till the end, closing out then game with a 97-55 win. Engel led GW with 18 points, while Duquesne was led by MacKenzie Blackford who had 20 points with 6 3-pointers made. Browne followed with 17 points.
It was painful to watch a totally unprepared GW team take the court. Throughout the game, GW had trouble getting the ball in bounds and protecting the ball once they did. Except for the 3rd quarter, the offense was rushed and erratic. Duquesne forced 26 GW turnovers and converted them into 38 points. With the big lead, the Dukes were confident shooters, and hit on 19-42 3-pointers. Although the defense was able to contain McConnell (5 points on 2-11 shooting), everyone else seemed to have career days. The Revs’ rotations continue to be baffling. Sierra-Vargas is better suited to come off the bench as a spark, than starting a game. Today, the Duquesne press overwhelmed her at the start of the game and the first 2.5 minutes of the game and set the tone for what was to follow. Engel may have had her best game as a Rev, so it was puzzling that she only played 21 minutes. Calisto and Matthews had some good moments and they also seem to be the better ball handlers than Andrews, Reynolds, Sierra-Vargas and Lewis. The players need to emphasize their strengths and play in complementary combinations. Yes, the players maybe be lacking in certain respects, but they deserve much better than what the coaching staff is giving them. When are the coaches going to step up?
Next up - a road contest against St. Louis, who 0-4 in A10 play. They can probably hardly wait to see the Revs come through the door.
Last edited by xAC (1/12/2025 8:35 am)
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Thread Starter- dmvpiranha
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Re: GW versus Duquesne Game Thread
The game began with WBB turning it over two times. Shortly after, there was an offensive possession where two players were standing in the same place in an offensive set (and not the first time that's happened either). Just completely clueless play out there. Duquesne shot the ball well, but any team that presses GW for 40 minutes can blow them out of the water. Place a trailing defender who can knock the ball away from behind and you can get the ball right back.
This was the kind of game where you can't find a positive even if you wanted to. The saddest part is the team looks to have quit somewhat. They were consistently out-hustled. The way the Dukes shot GW was going to lose, but to show no effort is unacceptable. In many ways, the team takes the personality of McCombs, who looks and sounds like an unemotional robot along the sidelines and during the postgame pressers. It makes me grateful that we have CC who actually explains his thought process instead of giving some lame answers that McCombs does. "We have been working on taking care of the ball" doesn't cut it. Nor does the young team excuse, when the staff has shown zero track record of developing players at all. The consistent changing of rotations in mid-January suggests the coaches have no idea which players work together well and which ones shouldn't be playing. That's troubling. WBB has now lost four straight at home.
How much of it is coaching vs. the players is up for debate. There's something to be said for taking players from winning programs even if their production is more modest. This year's transfers more or less came from losing programs and it shows. Zero leadership to be found. We already know the team is inept offensively, but for all the talk about McCombs being a great defensive coach this team shows difficulty guarding their own shadows for long stretches. Thankfully most teams WBB plays can't shoot otherwise that would be exposed a lot more often.