No. 11 Duquesne (12-19, 7-13) suffered a 73-55 decision to No. 6 George Washington (21-11, 11-8) Thursday night in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Ny.
Duquesne junior guard Micah Mason led the court with 22 points, hitting 6-of-9 three-point attempts. Junior guard Derrick Colter added 13 points for the Dukes, while junior guard Jeremiah Jones and senior center Dominique McKoy each contributed nine points. Colter and Jones each had five assists on the night.
George Washington freshman forward Yuta Watanabe and junior guards Patricio Garino and Joe McDonald all scored 12 points in the win. Junior forward Kevin Larsen posted a double double (10 points, 15 rebounds) for the Colonials. George Washington was 45.8 percent from the field.
“[George Washington] really came out aggressively,” Duquesne head coach Jim Ferry said. “They were hitting on all cylinders offensively early, hitting threes. They were shredding us at the basket.”
Duquesne, in comparison, was 33.9 percent from the field. Both teams shot 50 percent from the arc.
“George Washington is a good team,” Mason said. “First half I was rushed [in shooting] a couple times. That’s why I kind of missed a couple shots.”
Mason’s six three-pointers ties him for third most in an A-10 Championship game and matches his season-high, which he obtained against NJIT on November 29.
The Dukes are now 20-35 all-time in their 38 A-10 Championship appearances. In Thursday night’s game, the five Duquesne starters scored all 55 points.
“It’s been a really resilient group,” Ferry said. “We’ve gotten significantly better from the beginning of the season to the end. I was telling these guys, I wish we had two more weeks left prior; the tournament started a little bit later, I think we would have been a better team.”
Duquesne finishes its season 12-19 and 7-13 in the A-10. George Washington will move on to face No. 3 Rhode Island in the quarterfinals tonight at 9:00 p.m.
Ferry believes his team is headed in the right direction and has come closer to finding their identity as a group.
“If you’re going to do it right and you’re going to build a program, you have to have some patience and do it the right way,” Ferry said. “Now we have a foundation set and you build it from this foundation up.”
Photos by Rachel Konieczny
