Pittsburgh – From the looks of the first few possessions, the 2297 fans gathered at the A.J. Palumbo Center to watch Duquesne’s final game of the regular season knew they would be getting their money’s worth.
“We didn’t make a couple plays and they made the winning plays down the stretch, that’s what it came down to,” said Ovie Soko. Soko finished with 18 points, 12 of those coming in the second half.
Duquesne drew first blood, getting out to an early 15-6 lead as things warmed up. Dominique McKoy, who finished with 12 points, had six of his team’s first nine.
The Duquesne sharpshooters, led by Mason, were hitting – Mason finished 4 of 6 on 3-pointers while racking up a team-high 20 points.
Jerry Jones, who came up big in the road win at Saint Louis, stepped off the bench and popped a three, then followed it up with a nice pass inside to give Soko his first basket with 9:58 to go in the half. Jones, however, would be relatively quiet for the rest of the game. After that point the Massachusetts offense picked up, benefitting from a few Duquesne turnovers. Soko, who had a few errant passes in the middle stages of the first half, had four turnovers in the first twenty minutes alone.
A nearly four minute scoring drought for Duquesne was broken on a fast break layup from Mason, but UMASS would make it a one point game on a Chaz Williams bucket with 4:47 to go. Williams, the star point guard who broke the Massachusetts career assists record tonight, would hit a crucial 3-pointer with one minute to play in the half that put the Dukes down three. Although Duquesne accounted for him, Williams still managed to explode for 17 points and six assists.
“We didn’t do a good enough job on Chaz,” a dejected Ferry said after the game.
After being down one at the end of the first half, Duquesne jumped out on top early in the second and held the lead until under 15:00 to play. UMASS pushed for their largest lead of the contest, eight points, with 8:53 remaining.
“We can tell that we can compete with anybody on any given night,” Mason said. “We just have to make the plays to finish things out.”
Most of those plays were made by the Minutemen in the later stages, namely Trey Davis, who led his team with 20 tying for a game high. Davis finished 5 of 11 from the field on the game.
With under thirty seconds remaining and his team down by two, Mason called his own number and drove to the basket, but had his layup rejected emphatically back to half court. The ball ended up going out of bounds after Jeremiah Jones and a UMASS defender scrambled after it, but the referees could not determine who should have possession from there.
Unfortunately the replay monitor was broken, so it went to the possession arrow, which gave the ball to UMASS. Although Lalanne missed the front end of a one and one seconds later, Jerry Jones couldn’t connect on a contested shot in the paint on the other end, and Davis hit his free throws after an intentional foul, effectively ending the game.
Ferry spoke in a resigned tone, the same one he used after the Dayton game. “It was a great play,” he said of Mason’s shot. “He made a great shot and they blocked it.”
Soko and Mason are poised to make a run in the conference tournament. “We just gotta keep plugging away,” Soko said. “It’s March and anything can happen.”
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
