Pittsburgh – The new black uniforms failed to change Duquesne’s losing ways Saturday night at the A.J. Palumbo Center. Going up against a St. Bonaventure squad that was on the cusp of qualifying for the 12-team Atlantic-10 tournament, Ferry knew it would be a hard contest. But as well as Duquesne played for most of the second half, they couldn’t get the shots or the rebounds when they mattered most.
“I thought we came out a little sluggish in the first half, I thought we let St. Bonaventure get a little too comfortable,” Ferry said. “It came down to Chris Johnson and Demetrius Conger making big shots late in the game and us not making shots.”
Ferry said before the game that if his team can win the rebounding battle, they would have a good shot at winning. In the first half they did just that, gaining a 17-13 advantage on the boards. However, the Bonnies wound up beating the Dukes on the glass for the second time this season, 35-26, thanks to Conger’s nine second half rebounds and Johnson’s four. St. Bonaventure’s Eric Mosley, who scored 69 total points in his previous two games was held to just 16 tonight.
St. Bonaventure (13-13, 6-7) and Duquesne (8-19, 1-12) each made six 3-pointers in the first half. The Dukes were led by Quevyn Winters, who led all first half scorers with 16 points. The freshman forward shot 3 of 5 from beyond the arc in the first half but went 0 for 3 after that.
“They did a good job of closing out, crowding me, you know, not giving me space,” Winters said about his second half performance.
Duquesne settled into a 2-3 defense midway through the half to counter the Bonnies’ frontcourt, but their opponents didn’t miss much. Marvin Binney was able to give the Dukes a boost going into the locker room by hitting a deep three as time ran out. Binney finished with 8 points.
Binney’s shot seemed to give the Dukes more life coming out of the locker room. They opened the half with four straight points in the paint by Jeremiah Jones and Marhold. Duquesne was able to tie the game four times in the middle of the final half at 51, 53, 55, and 59 apiece.
After that, the problems set in. Ferry had this to say about the final six minutes: “We talked all year about the margin of error, and we have to come up with those rebounds to give us a chance to come back and score.”
A few crucial mistakes late in the game helped swing the momentum St. Bonaventure’s way. Colter was driving to the basket with success for a while, but once St. Bonaventure took that away, Duquesne struggled to score.
St. Bonaventure was able to convert on their opportunities at the end thanks to Conger and Johnson. At the end of the day, that was the difference in the game. Despite 18 points from Winters and a career-high in assists from Colter, the Dukes couldn’t come away with their first home win since December 19th.
Duquesne has this week off and will face LaSalle in Philadelphia next Saturday afternoon.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
