For Immediate Release: December 4, 2007
Contact: David O'Brian (dobrian@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6478

Women's basketball falls 75-65 at Duquesne
Bearcats put four in double figures, but fall short against Dukes

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Pa.--Junior guard Kristi Little scored a game-high 18 points and dished out nine assists, leading Duquesne (5-3) to a 75-65 win over Binghamton (1-6) in a non-conference women's basketball game on Tuesday night at the Palumbo Center. The game marked the first of three straight road contests for the Bearcats.

The host Dukes shot 49 percent from the field, draining nine of 18 three-point attempts in the process. Binghamton, on the other hand, shot just 33 percent for the game. The Dukes also won the battle of the benches, outscoring the Bearcat second team by a 29-14 margin.

Duquesne broke the game open with an 11-0 run to go up 25-14 with 7:14 left in the first half. Binghamton got to within 32-28 on a lay up by Franceski at the 1:51 mark but trailed 37-30 at the break. In the second half, the Dukes padded the lead by hitting back-to-back three-point attempts to go up 48-36 with 16:44 to go.

The backbreaking run by the Dukes, however, was a 10-0 spurt in a span of 3:07 to make it 68-48 with 8:09 left in regulation.

Binghamton closed out the game on a 17-7 run but would no get closer than 10 points during that stretch.

Sophomore guard Erica Carter had a team-high 16 points; marking the fourth time in the past five games she has reached double figures in scoring.

Senior center Laine Kurpniece (Riga, Latvia) added 13 points while junior forward Laura Franceski (Moscow, Pa.) and senior guard Laura Sario (Espoo, Finland) chipped in with 11 points each.

Franceski also blocked three shots for the third game in a row, giving her 96 career rejections. She moves into second place all time, surpassing Alicia Brennan (1986-90), who had 95 career blocks

Sario is now in 14th place all time in school history with 862 points. With the 11-point performance, she passed Robyn LeBel (857 points from 1991-93) and Sonny Mehring (860 points from 1978-82).

Binghamton committed a season-low 13 turnovers while dishing out 15 assists. Sario had a team-high five assists while sophomore point guard Muffy Sadler had four helpers, giving her eight in the past two games.

Binghamton heads to Liberty for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday.

NOTES: Kurpniece has 890 career points and is in 13th place on the BU scoring list…Tonight's meeting was the first between the two programs