Duquesne (9-16, 4-10) rallied to defeat Atlantic 10 co-leader Dayton (20-6, 10-4) in an 83-73 upset win this afternoon at the CONSOL Energy Center.
The Dukes were led by junior guard Derrick Colter, who had a team-high 25 points in scoring his thousandth point on a 3-pointer with 18:06 left in play. Colter became the 38th player in Duquesne history to be given the honor.
“It was a good win. I just wanted to win,” Colter said. “I [don’t] really care about the thousand points right now—I wanted to win with my teammates.”
Also scoring for the Dukes were junior guard Micah Mason with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals; senior forward Dominique McKoy with 11 points and 9 rebounds and career highs for 5 assists and 3 steals, and junior guard Jeremiah Jones with 10 points.
“I think that was the best basketball game we played this season, just a truly unselfish basketball game on both ends of the floor,” head coach Jim Ferry said of his team. “We know we’ve been getting better, and I think it showed a lot tonight. We still have our struggles on the road, but when we play at home, we really play better.”
Mason played his first career 40-minute game in the win.
“I think we kind of knew we were going to be playing a lot more minutes now with less guys and me and [Colter]—we’ve just got to stay tough and continue to play hard and that’s what we have to do if we want to win,” Mason said.
The Flyers’ junior forward Dyshawn Pierre led the court with 27 points and 12 rebounds.
Dayton hit three early 3-pointers in starting the game with a 13-5 lead before Duquesne took a 21-20 lead in the first half. Duquesne trailed 42-41 at the half, but came back to build a 61-52 lead on a Mason 3-pointer with 9:53 remaining after the Dukes took the lead for good on sophomore forward L.G. Gill’s dunk only two minutes into the second half of play. Duquesne cinched the win with a pair of Mason free throws and a Colter converted three-point play, making it 74-64 with just over five minutes left.
The Duquesne bench outscored Dayton’s bench 20-5.
Dayton finished 39.7 percent from the field, including an 11-of-33 effort from the arc. Duquesne was 52.5 percent from the field.
“I think we do a pretty good job of being together,” Jones said. “I think it’s time for us to start taking that next step.”
Duquesne will face Saint Louis (10-16, 2-11) Wednesday at 7:00 pm ET at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
