Duquesne was Workman-like, dominates 1st NCAA game

Storrs, CT -- 1-for-1 is always better than 0-1. Duquesne, in their first NCAA Tournament appearance, earned their first win in the Big Dance by defeating Seton Hall, 97-76. The Dukes never trailed against the Pirates, and held a double-digit lead for much of the second half.

Deva'Nyar Workman poured in a game-high and career-high 25 points on 8-for-13 shooting, while also adding 12 rebounds and five assists.

"Coming out I just felt very confident in my game today," Workman said. "I just if I was going to be able to get to the basket, I might as well take it. This is win or go home, so I had nothing to lose today. I felt like I played with a lot of heart, and along with my teammates we were all pushing for each other to put everything out there."

The Pirates were led by Tabatha Richardson-Smith, who scored 17 points. Shakena Richardson added 13 points, after scoring 20 in her team's last game against Creighton in the Big East Semi-finals.

Duquesne jumped out to a 12-3 lead early in the first quarter. Seton Hall would hang tough, cutting the deficit to five at one point, but trailed by nine through ten minutes of action.

The Dukes lead would grow to as many as 13 points about three minutes into the second quarter. The Pirates hung tough, and ended the half on a 11-4 run, decreasing Duquesne's lead to six at the break.

"I thought (Duquesne) came out during the first two minutes of the game and they executed the way they wanted to execute, really took it at us and put us on our heels," Seton Hall coach Anthony Bozzella said. "We had to play catch up the whole game.

"When your trying to catch up the warts start to come out, and we showed a lot of them unfortunately. It's very disappointing."

Both teams took turns scoring early in the third, playing pretty even through the first three minutes of the second half. Seton Hall cut the lead to four a couple times, but Duquesne always seemed to have an answer. With the score 51-47, the Dukes scored six-straight points, pushing their lead to ten, causing the Pirates to use a timeout.

Duquesne continued to increase their lead by forcing turnovers on the defensive end. The Dukes continued on their run, and took their largest lead of the game, 66-47, with a little over three minutes left in the third. Amadea Szamosi scored six of her 16 points in the third quarter.

Seton Hall trailed by 19 entering the fourth quarter, and as many would expect of an NCAA Tournament team, the Pirates would continue to fight until the very end. Seton Hall opened the fourth with a corner three, but were never able to get closer than 16.

Duquesne finished with four players in double figures.

"Wow, what a game," Duquesne coach Dan Burt said. The contributions that we had from so many different players don't just show up in the box score. It was a complete team effort today, and a complete team win. I could not be more proud or more happy of our team."

Duquesne will take on the the three-time defending National Champion UConn Huskies on Monday in the second round of the Bridgeport region.