Duquesne (10-17, 5-11) suffered a 92-75 loss to St. Bonaventure (15-12, 8-8) this afternoon at the Reilly Center in Olean, Ny. This is the seventh consecutive home win over Duquesne for the Bonnies.
The Dukes led for a mere 0:30 at the start of the game until the Bonnies took over at 19:12 in the first half with a three pointer by senior guard Andell Cumberbatch. Junior guard Marcus Posley led the Bonnies with 29 points, including six 3-pointers. Cumberbatch added 18 points.
Leading Duquesne was junior guard Derrick Colter with 22 points. Senior forward Dominique McKoy contributed a career-high 20 points, followed by junior forward Jeremiah Jones’ 13 points.
The Dukes managed to hold St. Bonaventure to 38.5% from the field and 22.2% from the arc in the second half, down from the first half’s 51.6% field shooting and 60% in 3-point shots.
““I thought that we came out flat and slow and give a little bit too much comfort to [Marcus] Posley,”head coach Jim Ferry said. “We talked about extending the zone and running them off the line and we didn’t do a very good job [of that]. We did a better job in the second half—we held them to 38% from the field in the second half and 22% from [the three-point arc] in the second half.”
The Bonnies jumped to an early 18-9 lead in hitting seven of its first 11 shots, including three 3-pointers.
Duquesne began the second half of play with an 11-4 run.
“We did a good job, we grinded it back, and I thought it came down to defensive rebounding,” Ferry said of his team’s second half effort. “We had a couple stops in a row—first shot stops—and [St. Bonaventure] got off and rebounded and scored off them and I thought that was the back-breaker for us coming back in the second half.”
The Dukes shot 42.9% from the field and 20% from the arc for the night.
“It’s tough on the road and you’re margin of error is significantly smaller,” Ferry said. “I think it showed tonight and that’s how come we had to win the 50-50s and the rebounding and we didn’t.”
Ferry praised his lone senior on his career-high scoring game.
“[Dominique McKoy] has been playing great for us down the stretch. Obviously he’s our only senior—he’s playing with a sense of urgency,” Ferry said. “I thought he was tremendous tonight and he has been over this past stretch when we’ve been playing better and that’s what we’ve got to do—we’ve got to keep focusing on getting better.”
Duquesne plays Fordham (9-18, 4-12) on Wednesday at 7:00 pm ET in Bronx, Ny for its final Atlantic 10 away game.
