Duquesne women put it all together, cruise to easy win
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Duquesne University women's coach Suzie McConnell-Serio had a heart-to-heart talk with her team, benched four starters who showed up late for a game and juggled the lineup in an effort to salvage a season that had been promising but fallen on hard times of late.
"We had to do something to get back on the same page," she explained. "We needed to get our focus back. We talked about competing in practice, something we hadn't been doing. We were saving ourselves for games and not going hard."
The Dukes responded Saturday with one of their most complete games this season in an unexpectedly easy, 81-53 victory against visiting Charlotte at Palumbo Center.
"I think we were really excited about the game," said senior forward Alex Gensler, who had a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds. "We had been struggling, but I think we finally turned the corner. We're a whole new team."
Gensler had three 3-pointers to tie the school career record with 225 and also became the school's seventh all-time scorer with 1,352 points.
Duquesne, 17-8 overall and 5-5 in the Atlantic 10, has won its past two games after a disappointing, 56-55 defeat at St. Louis in which McConnell-Serio sat four starters to open the game because of their tardiness.
"Coach isn't joking around. She's serious," said sophomore forward Wumi Agunbiade, who had 15 points and nine rebounds. "She woke us up."
Junior guard Jocelyn Floyd has been forced to take over the duties at point guard since star playmaker Vanessa Abel had surgery on her left kneecap three weeks ago. Floyd stuffed the statistic sheet with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 9 steals against the 49ers (15-10, 7-4), who entered in fourth place in the conference.
"Jocelyn really impacted the game," McConnell-Serio said. "She handled the pressure and really managed the game."
Duquesne outrebounded the much taller 49ers, 44-31, and forced 24 turnovers.
"Both the coaches and players came together to reach a common goal," Gensler said. "We're getting back to playing the way we did earlier in the season."
First Published February 12, 2012 12:00 am
