Pittsburgh—The Duquesne Dukes (2-3) travel to Boone, NC on Wednesday to take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers (1-4). The Dukes opened the season with back-to-back road losses, but followed up with a 2-1 home-stand at the Palumbo Center last week.
That home-stand featured some distinct highs and lows—a thrilling overtime victory in the first game, followed by poor shot selection in the next, and finally ending with a dominant rebounding performance and 84-74 victory over Youngstown State. So what team will make the trip down to North Carolina?
The Dukes will be going up against a slightly more experienced team on Wednesday. The Mountaineers return their whole backcourt from last season. They also have Xavier transfer Jay Canty, who sat out all of last season due to NCAA transfer rules. Canty led XU in minutes played for freshmen in 2010-11. Appalachian State mirrors Duquesne’s rebounding margin of +5.2 for the season. The Southern Conference team has struggled on defense this season however—they are giving up an average of 82 points per game.
Canty, a 6-6 forward, has been the Mountaineers’ star player through their first five games. He is leading the team in points per game (16.6), rebounds per game (6.8), and blocks (4). If the Dukes can keep him quiet in the paint, they will have a good chance of winning the game.
Appalachian State’s lone win came in their first game against Montreat. Since then, the Mountaineers have had their share of struggles. They have failed to finish a game within less than ten points of any opponent. Many of their struggles are in transition defense—in their 101-82 loss to Campbell on November 16th, they were outscored 23-0 on the fast break.
“I see this team in practice as much as I see the team that played last night in practice,” Coach Ferry said after his team’s loss to North Dakota State in Duquesne’s 2nd game of the Legends Classic sub-regional. Hopefully the players have learned a lesson from the selfish play they showed that night.
If the more disciplined version of the Duquesne Dukes shows up Wednesday night, they should have no trouble picking up their first road win of the season.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
