The Dukes (11-6, 1-3, A10) came into Wednesday’s night’s game fresh from its 91-64 loss to George Washington on Saturday, looking for a fresh start in conference play. It appears it was successful despite the loss of the high-scoring senior Jeremiah Jones who is out for the season with a torn ACL. Senior Micah Mason, the third leading three-point shooter in the NCAA, returned after suffering an ankle injury in the Jan. 6 game at Davidson.
To say the Billikens (6-10, 1-3 A10) struggled through the first half, would be an understatement. They missed the first 11 of their 12 shots, and were only able to put the ball in the basket four times in the first half, which at the end Duquesne had a commanding 38-13 lead.
In fact, the Billikens didn’t get into double-digit scoring until Mike Crawfrod at the 3:52 mark hit a 3-pointer.
St. Louis scored half of its 71 points in the last eight minutes, starting at the 8:24 mark with 38 points and ending up with 71 with less than a minute left in the game.
Duquesne men’s basketball head coach Jim Ferry said he was pleased in the way the team rebounded from it’s loss to GW, “Our guys really came out and responded. We had great senior leadership by D.C. [Colter] and Micah [Mason] and we came out with a disposition to respond. When you get beat like we got beat on the road, you challenge your program and I thought our guys really responded.”
Interestingly, on Jan. 6 the Billikens in a home game handed GW a 65-62 loss.
Several minutes into the second half, the Dukes quickly established a more commanding 29 point lead, 57-28 at the 13:52 mark. The Billikens found it almost impossible to penetrate the Duke’s zone defense, forcing it to take many of its shots from the 3-point range.
The Dukes continued to press the Billikens, frequently taking it down to the final few seconds of the shot clock, forcing it to take less than optimal shots.
On the other hand, Duquesne easily penetrated the Billikens’ defense and were able to post 49 percent from the paint and 38 percent from the 3-point range.
St. Louis ended up with making 33 percent from the paint and 48 percent of its 3-pointers, which was much improved from the 11 and 25 percent it posted n the first half.
Derrick Colter with 17 points, two rebounds and three assists, and Micah Mason posted 15 points, three rebounds and three assists, led the Dukes scoring effort.
Both Ash Yacouubou and Jermaine Bishop, each with 21 points led the Billikens in scoring. Yacoubou also had seven rebounds and three assists.
Duquesne hosts St. Bonaventure (12-3, 4-0, A10), who holds the first place slot in the Atlantic 10 Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
