Pittsburgh—The last night of Duquesne’s six-game stand in Pittsburgh ended with a 71-66 win over Western Michigan Wednesday night. It was their last home game until they host Saint Joseph’s on January 12th.
If anyone on the court showed up to play, it was freshman point guard Derrick Colter. With a forward-oriented team like Western Michigan, someone for Duquesne needed to make an impact with quickness and outside shooting. Colter did just that, putting up 25 points while shooting 9 of 17 from the floor with 6 rebounds.
It wasn’t enough that Colter scored 16 points in the 1st half and combined with Johnson for 25 of the team’s first 29 points. Western Michigan simply wouldn’t go away at any point in the game. After leading by only four at halftime, Duquesne jumped out to an eleven point lead in the first minute and a half of the 2nd period. They soon opened up a thirteen point gap thanks in part to Colter’s shooting and Marhold’s efforts inside.
The Broncos of Western Michigan (7-4) came storming back though, cutting Duquesne’s lead down to three points with 10:18 remaining on a layup by 6-10 forward Shayne Whittington. Fortunately, the Dukes (7-5) kept their poise. Sean Johnson, who finished with 18 points, hit a contested 3-pointer in front of his team’s bench several seconds later to give his team some breathing room. This marked the end of a six minute scoring drought for the home team.
Duquesne attempted thirty-two 3-pointers Wednesday night, a season-high. Of the twelve that they made, Coach Ferry thought Johnson’s shot was the biggest of the game.
Maybe so, but Colter was indispensable. His performance is particularly impressive coming off his Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award that he won on Monday. It is worthy to note that Colter outperformed his 14 points-per-game average last week that earned him the award.
“Coach said push it at them, so I attacked and I found my kick out [from] Sean or whoever from three, and I started making plays,” Colter said of his stand-out performance.
Needless to say, Coach Ferry’s game plan worked. Although Western Michigan had the edge on the glass (44-41) by the end of the game, Duquesne held its own on the inside thanks to quality efforts by Marhold, Jerry and Jeremiah Jones. Before the game, Ferry told Jerry and Jeremiah that their sole job was to wear down Western Michigan center Shayne Whittington. Although they allowed the big fellow to score a double-double with 20 points, the Dukes were able to shut him out in the final six minutes.
“Even though we got outrebounded by three, that team’s a great rebounding team—and we’re not there yet, but that was a big reason why we won,” a pleased Jim Ferry stated after his team’s win.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
