Vanderbilt women top Duquesne
A bad day for the Duquesne women's basketball team meant a good one for ex-Slippery Rock High School standout Jence Rhoads, who waited years to play near her hometown.
In front of hundreds of supporters, at least a dozen of whom held signs for Rhoads, the senior guard helped Vanderbilt down Duquesne, 80-59, on Sunday at Palumbo Center, snapping the Dukes' seven-game winning streak.
Rhoads finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Jasmine Lister led the Commodores with 21 points, and Christina Foggie, a freshman who missed the previous three games with a concussion, added 17.
Duquesne went ahead early but watched its lead vanish for good 10 minutes into the game. The Commodores made as many 3-pointers as Duquesne attempted.
"Vanderbilt's a very good team," Duquesne coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said. "They shot well, executed well and made plays, and we just couldn't find an answer to limit their number of 3s. They capitalized on our mistakes, found multiple ways to score, and we just didn't have an answer."
Duquesne (8-2) was one win shy of setting a school record for consecutive victories. It was Vanderbilt's first road victory of the season.
Freshman forward Wumi Agunbiade led Duquesne with 15 points and added eight rebounds, and three other players -- starters Samantha Pollino, Alex Gensler and Vanessa Abel -- scored in double figures. The remaining players combined for just 10 points.
Duquesne led, 7-2, in the first five minutes, but Vanderbilt (7-3) went on a 7-0 run to pull ahead.
Two minutes after the Dukes lost their lead for the third and final time, the Commodores went ahead by double digits. During that span Duquesne turned the ball over three times, leading to five points for Vanderbilt; another five came off Dukes' fouls.
Duquesne cut the lead to seven with three minutes left in the first half. But Foggie hit two consecutive 3-pointers, including one after another Duquesne turnover, and the Commodores led by 13 with a minute left.
"Offensively, we went on dry spells for way too long, and in the second half, we couldn't get over the hump," McConnell-Serio said. "They made us earn everything in this game."
Vanderbilt, ranked in the AP Top 25 the first three weeks of the season, scored 28 points off turnovers and 29 off the bench.
The game was the long-awaited fulfillment of a recruiting promise from Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb, who tries to schedule nonconference games in or near her players' hometowns at least once during their college careers. Another Commodores player, senior forward Rebecca Silinski, was born in Pittsburgh and still has family in the area.
Rhoads said more than 300 tickets were sold at Slippery Rock, and several busloads of friends, family and fans made the trip south for the game.
"(The crowd) was bigger than I thought," Rhoads said. "I heard a lot of people saying they were going to come, but you never know. I was happy when we came out the first time, and I looked around."
