Duquesne (11-17, 6-11) looks to cinch the No. 10 seed in the Atlantic 10 in its last regular season game tonight at 7:00 pm ET game against Davidson (22-6, 13-4) at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh. The Dukes need a win and a Saint Louis (13-16, 7-10) loss at Rhode Island to earn the 10th spot.
The Dukes are coming off an 81-66 win over Fordham on Wednesday at Rose Hill Gym, having won three of its past four games. Duquesne has not lost a home game since Jan. 22 against St. Bonaventure.
First-year Atlantic 10 member Davidson, picked to finish 12th in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll, can secure a share of the Atlantic 10 regular season title and a No. 1 overall seed with a win today against the Dukes.
Davidson is riding an eight-game win streak that began when the team defeated Duquesne 95-69 on Feb. 7 at the Belk Arena in Davidson, Nc. The Wildcats are coming off an 82-55 wire-to-wire win over VCU Thursday in shooting 50.9 percent from the field.
Davidson holds the spot for the highest scoring team in the Atlantic 10 at 79.6 ppg, and also leads the conference in scoring margin (+11.8), field goal (.470), 3-point (.394), and free throw percentage (.724), defensive rebounds (25.9), assists (16.8), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7), and 3-pointers made (10.7).
Wildcats’ head coach Bob McKillop is in his 26th season of coaching, all with Davidson, making him the seventh-longest tenured coach in the country. He has led Davidson to 20 or more wins in 21 of his first 25 seasons.
Duquesne averages 77.4 ppg and has been outscored by an average of just 1.7 ppg, despite its record. Three of the Dukes’ Atlantic 10 home games have been decided on the last possession. The Dukes are 9-6 at Pittsburgh.
Davidson, making its first-ever trip to Pittsburgh, is 8-4 on the road.
The lowest seed Duquesne can earn is 11th. The 11th through 14th place finishers open the Atlantic 10 Championship, held March 11-15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Ny, on Wednesday, March 11. All other seeds begin play on Thursday and Friday.
The game tonight will be broadcast by the American Sports Network, WJAS 1320 AM, iHeartRadio, and 3WS HD2, and will be streaming live on Red Zone Media (http://www.redzonemedia.com/viewschedule.asp?sportID=2&SchoolID=52).
(Photo Credit: goduquesne.com)
