Pittsburgh—Fresh off a quality win over Western Michigan, and with Atlantic 10 play just around the corner, Duquesne (7-5) is preparing to head southward. There they will square off against Louisiana-Lafayette (4-8) on December 22nd before heading back up to Pennsylvania to play Penn State (6-4) on the 29th. The third and final game of Duquesne’s road trip will take place at Fordham (2-8) on January 9th.
The Dukes have a home record of 6-1 this year. Aside from the loss to North Dakota State in the Legends Classic sub-regional, they have been quite impressive at the Palumbo Center. Although the caliber of competition Duquesne will be facing on their three-game road trip isn’t particularly impressive, the next three games will be a test for the Dukes. They haven’t played outside of the Pittsburgh area since their November 28th win over a thoroughly mediocre Appalachian State team. In that game, the Dukes committed 17 turnovers, their third most on the year. Duquesne led that game by 14 at the half, and it took a go-ahead 3-pointer by Quevyn Winters with 31 seconds remaining to finally seal the deal. Their last time away from the Palumbo Center Robert Morris managed to completely rout the Dukes in the 2nd half.
To win on the road at this level, it takes two good halves of basketball. It’s no secret that none of the teams Duquesne will be facing in the next couple weeks possess any more talent than them. But the Dukes must learn to string together consistent performances, as they have shown they can certainly do at home.
Shooting the ball is a tough way to achieve this consistency–many teams struggle shooting the basketball on the road as opposed to at home. But this doesn’t have to spell disaster for Duquesne, a team that relies heavily on the outside shot. As a team, they need to make up for this by committing fewer turnovers. Since the beginning of the season, they have made some significant steps in the right direction. Granted the Robert Morris game was a disaster, but Duquesne only turned the ball over 13 times Wednesday night against Western Michigan—this tied their season low in the turnover category. Point guard Derrick Colter has also improved his assist-to-turnover ratio since November.
Intricacies aside, the most important game of the road trip for Duquesne is the last one against Fordham. This will be the first Atlantic 10 game of the year for the red and blue, and in a tough conference every game matters. Judging by how things have played out so far this year, it appears as though Fordham is going to be a bottom-dweller—but even so, Duquesne must still be at their best, mentally and physically, for this contest.
The Fordham game will set the tone for a loaded January in which Duquesne plays Saint Joseph’s, VCU, Saint Louis, and Dayton, among a host of others.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
