Lafayette—The first half went down in familiar fashion Saturday night for Duquesne. The Dukes shot well from behind the arc (6 for 11) thanks to Sean Johnson and Jeremiah Jones, who each had two threes apiece. They also played sound defense, holding their opponents to 33 points on 42% shooting.
Derrick Colter put up another stellar performance, tying his career-high in points with 25. Following Colter’s lead, Johnson put up 16 points, while Jeremiah Jones scored 12. Unfortunately, these individual performances weren’t enough to beat Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Ragin’ Cajuns gave the visiting Dukes flashbacks to the Robert Morris game of a week ago. They may not have done it with quite as many 3-pointers as RMU, but UL-Lafayette managed to turn a 38-33 halftime deficit into a 91-79 victory. They did, however, shoot a whopping 71% in the 2nd half to run away with the game.
Ferry was concerned about the effects of his team’s long trip even before the game started. “We got about four hours of sleep after Western Michigan and had to get on a plane. But that can‘t be an excuse,” the Dukes’ head coach told the Tribune-Review. Ferry also acknowledged that his team simply failed to come in and play decent basketball.
Duquesne’s numbers from the 2nd half reflected their fatigue. They controlled the boards in the first half (19-17) but found themselves out-rebounded (33-26) by the time the game was over. It sure didn’t help that four of five Duquesne starters played over thirty minutes—but the team couldn’t seem to get a boost from their typically strong bench.
A 16-3 run by the Ragin’ Cajuns early in the 2nd half seemed to take the fight out of the Dukes. Cajun senior Bryant Mbamalu scored 22 points, all in the final half of play.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
