After a week-long lull in the action, Duquesne (7-13, 0-6) will take on St. Bonaventure (9-10, 2-4) at the Reilly Center on Saturday. The Bonnies have also been idle for the past week and are coming off a 67-57 loss to Saint Louis.
The game will be televised locally on Root Sports. St. Bonaventure, like Duquesne has had their share of troubles this season. After a 7-3 start, they fell victim to a six-game losing streak that began before Christmas and carried on into January. They were able to follow up with two tough, back-to-back road wins over Temple and Saint Joe’s before falling to the Billikens of Saint Louis last week. St. Bonaventure has been able to hold its own in every conference game so far.
Duquesne will surely be hungry for a win. Unfortunately things aren’t going to be easy for them on the road, as the Reilly Center is not an easy place to play. The Dukes are also 1-8 on the road this season.
St. Bonaventure just so happens to be Duquesne’s most frequent opponent. This will be the 62nd consecutive year that the two schools have met. Duquesne faced St. Bonaventure twice last year. The first time, in Pittsbugh, the Dukes were able to record a 66-52 victory. But when they had to go to the Reilly Center later on in the season they wound up on the losing end of a 69-48 game. That’s a 35-point turnaround, in case you’re counting. Duquesne leads the all-time series 57-51.
Derrick Colter needs just one assist to become the 8th freshman in school history to reach the mark of 100. The freshman trio of Colter, Jeremiah Jones and Winters still accounts for 42 percent of Duquesne’s points and over half of the team’s 3-pointers.
Luckily for Duquesne, St. Bonaventure lost forward Andrew Nicholson to graduation this year. Nicholson torched the Dukes for 21 points in the last meeting. The Bonnies still have a strong presence down low in Demetrius Conger. Conger, senior, is averaging 14.3 points per game. He recorded 9 points and 8 rebounds in last year’s game at the Reilly Center. St. Bonaventure’s second leading scorer is small forward Chris Johnson, another senior. Johnson averages 12.8 points per game.
If they want to win, Duquesne must strive not to get outrebounded. The Dukes were beat on the glass by a margin of 49-25 in their last meeting with the Bonnies. They have also lost the rebounding battle in their past four games.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
