Duquesne (15-11, 5-8) dropped an 81-74 decision at home to George Washington (19-7, 8-5) yesterday, suffering its fourth consecutive defeat.
Senior Micah Mason scored a game-high 26 points, marking the fifth-straight 20-point game for the guard. Senior guard Derrick Colter added 18 for the Dukes, who led 45-32 with 17:01 left. Junior center Darius Lewis grabbed nine rebounds.
Senior forward Kevin Larsen led the Colonials with 16 points.
“Right now, we just don’t have that edge to pull out wins but we just have to continue to get better,” Mason said. “There’s still five games left in the conference and [we have to] watch film and get better every day.”
Head coach Jim Ferry said his team needs to improve on defense in the second half, noting George Washington’s 38.7 shooting in the first half and 48.4 shooting in the second half.
“I think it comes down to us not defending as well in the second half as we did the first half,” Ferry said.
The Colonials tied the game at 53-53 on a pair of Tyler Cavanaugh free throws with just under 10 minutes left. Larsen’s layup off a Duquesne turnover gave George Washington its first lead since the 10:11 mark in the first half.
Duquesne pulled the game to within three on a Josh Steel 3-pointer before Larsen sank a 3-pointer to make it 74-68 with 1:06 left.
Colter, who has played every game in his Duquesne career, passed Damian Saunders to become the school’s all-time leader in career starts with 117.
The Dukes travel to face Rhode Island (14-12, 6-7) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy of goduquesne.com
