Duquesne beats Seton Hall 97-76 in NCAA tournament debut

STORRS, Conn. (AP) Duquesne's players were not satisfied with bringing the program to an NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. They wanted to

STORRS, Conn. (AP) Duquesne's players were not satisfied with bringing the program to an NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. They wanted to make some noise.

Deva'Nyar Workman scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and the ninth-seeded Dukes routed eighth-seeded Seton Hall 97-76 on Saturday.

Workman led four players in double figures for Duquesne (28-5), which used a 15-0 third-quarter run to stretch a six-point halftime lead.

''This is win or go home, so I had nothing to lose today,'' said Workman. ''I played with a lot of heart, along with my teammates. We was all just pushing for each other to just put everything out there.''

Kadri-Ann Lass scored 20 points, Amadea Szamosi added 16 and April Robinson scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had seven assists. The 97 points were the most the Dukes have put up this season.

''Wow, wow,'' said Dukes coach Dan Burt. ''Just a complete team effort tonight, a complete team win. I could not be more proud or more happy of our team and our university today.''

Tabatha Richardson-Smith scored 17 points, while Shakena Richardson and Aleesha Powell each added 13 for Seton Hall (23-9), which lost for the second consecutive year in a first-round game at Gampel Pavilion.

The Dukes will play UConn in the second round on Monday night. The Huskies beat Robert Morris, 101-49 earlier Saturday.

Workman hit six of her first eight shots and had 15 points and six rebounds at halftime.

Duquesne scored the first eight points and was up 12-3 just three minutes into the game after a layup by Szamosi. It was 33-24 after 10 minutes and consecutive layups by Workman and Lass pushed that to 13 early in the second quarter.

But Seton Hall began chipping away. The Pirates scored seven of the last nine points in the half and a 3-pointer from Powell cut the deficit to 43-37 at the break.

The Pirates cut the lead to four twice in the third quarter before Duquesne went on its decisive run to stretch the lead to 66-47.

A layup by Workman with just over eight minutes left made it 75-55 and Seton Hall never challenged again.

''Everyone is going to get on runs and they had their run,'' said Robinson. ''But we didn't back down, we just kept taking it to them.''

Seton Hall normally dominates underneath, outscoring opponents in the paint by about nine points a game. But Duquesne, led by Workman, won that battle 28-26. The Dukes also outrebounded Seton Hall 43-37.

''Trying to play catch-up, really the warts start to come out,'' said Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella. ''And really, we showed a lot of them today, unfortunately.''

Duquesne shared the Atlantic 10's regular season title with Saint Louis and George Washington, but needed an at-large bid after losing to George Washington in the championship game of the conference tournament.

Seton Hall had won six straight before losing to Creighton in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.

The Pirates also were placed in Storrs last year, losing a first-round game to Rutgers. They lost four starters from that team and made it to the NCAA Tournament despite being picked to finish fifth in the Big East during the preseason.

TIP INS:

Duquesne: Robinson, Emilie Gronas and Workman have more wins, 95, than any class in program history. Robinson's seven assists move her into second place in program history with 574, ahead of Korie Hlede, who finished her career with 570.

Seton Hall: The Pirates are now 3-4 in their NCAA Tournament history. They advanced to the second round in 1995 and the regional semifinals in 1994.

UP NEXT

Duquesne: Plays top-seed UConn Monday in the second round

Seton Hall: The Pirates end their season at 23-9.