This was a very entertaining game with swings in momentum and lead changes throughout.  After the Dukes held the lead for most of the first half; Kent took the lead by 5 into halftime with some ridiculous three-point shooting.  They were stepping out and hitting some very long threes.  Frankly, it they were going to shoot like that the entire game; it was hard to see the Dukes finding a path to a win.  Tess was also hot from long-range and Bernard chipped in with some key baskets; but without tighter defense this wasn't going to end well.  
In the second half the Dukes really picked up the defense and did a much better job of running Kent off their spots on the 3's.  The close-outs were such that the Kent shooters, who were mainly spot-up shooters, were forced to take a dribble and try to re-set before shooting; or take it to the basket which clearly wasn't their strong point.  The Dukes also played smart in the second-half by not helping too much on Kent's drives to the basket; instead staying closer to the shooters to prevent kick-outs for easy threes. 
As stated above Amaya played a great game; and was a match-up nightmare for Kent all night.  She used her offensive skills to take the slower Kent bigs into the paint and punished them regularly with very nice half-hooks and layups.  Frankly, I think the Dukes could have gone back to Amaya even more than they did; but they won the game; so no complaints.  
Tess was on fire from three and played a responsible overall game.  It was an outstanding performance, and she put this one away with a three from the left wing that gave the Dukes a comfortable lead with just over a minute to play; then proceeded to knock down four free throws to keep Kent at bay.  
Kent substituted freely throughout, but the Dukes starters showed their mettle despite playing almost the full forty minutes in many cases.
Megan McConnell continues to amaze!  She scored repeatedly on reverse layups handled the offense, fought through screens on defense, and somehow managed to come away with some of the biggest rebounds down the stretch. I don't know the extent of the injuries to the team; but hopefully they are not long-term or season-ending. 
 
The only downside to the evening was the officiating; which seems to be incredibly poor for the women's games in particular.  They clearly got off to a slow start by calling nothing through most of the first quarter despite obvious fouls being committed by both teams. It took a "T" assessed to the Kent coach to wake up the officials.  Although the crew did improve somewhat; there were still some pretty heinous head-scratchers throughout the game.  I don't think they favored either team; just poor in general.  

Amazingly, she was only two assists shy of another triple-double last night!