The last time the Charlotte 49ers saw the Duquesne Dukes, Karen Aston’s crew might have taken their most gut-wrenching loss of the season. Charlotte allowed five points over the final 14 seconds and fell 70-68 to the Dukes in double-overtime.
Wednesday night had a similar ring to it as Duquesne surged past Charlotte in the second half to steal a win that was seemingly in the grasp of Aston’s 49ers. Charlotte took a 50-40 edge after a bucket at the 14:52 mark of the second half and seemed to be well on their way to an easy win.
That’s the last time the 49ers would score over the next seven minutes, though, as Duquesne used a 24-5 run to hand the 49ers another heartbreaking loss, 76-63. Known as a strong road team, Duquesne entered the night with an NCAA-leading 12 road wins.
"Not a very good mood at all," Aston said. "I'm really disappointed in the way we played the last 10 minutes. We made horrible decisions offensively. I thought it was way too much one-on-one and people trying to do stuff by themselves."
After scoring 13 points over the first five minutes of the second half, the 49ers scored only 13 more points over the final 14:52, leading to their seventh loss of the season.
Epiphany Woodson, Jennifer Hailey and Shannon McCallum all had 13 points to lead Charlotte as the Dukes inched a game closer to the 49ers in the A-10 standings. Charlotte travels to Olean, NY on Saturday afternoon for a match-up with St. Bonaventure.
After amassing 11 turnovers in the first half, things didn’t get much better for the 49ers, who had 10 more empty possessions in the second stanza. Duquesne also outscored Charlotte 20-12 in the paint in the second half as they shot 9-of-30 from the field. The 49ers hit just one 3-pointer in the game.
"Quite honestly, our team folded tonight," Aston said. "They didn't show a lot of character over the last 10 minutes. Again, sometimes you just have to say it like it is. I'm incredibly disappointed."
Orsi Szecsi led the Dukes with 23 points and nine rebounds.
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