No. 11 Duquesne (11-18, 6-12) will face No. 14 Saint Louis (11-20, 3-15) in the first-round game of the Atlantic 10 Championship tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Ny. The Dukes will be making their second A-10 Championship appearance under third-year head coach Jim Ferry.
The winner of the game moves on to face No. 6 George Washington (20-11, 10-8) on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
This is the first time Duquesne has entered the Championship as a No. 11 seed. The Dukes have won just two A-10 Championship first round games since 1995, with wins over UMass in both 2004 and 2009. Duquesne failed to qualify for the Championship in 2006 and 2013.
The Dukes and the Billikens split home wins during the regular season, with a 78-69 Saint Louis win on January 14 and a 79-66 Duquesne win on February 25.
“We’ve talked all year about making sure we get better everyday in practice,” Ferry said. “[Yesterday] was our last day of the season that we can work on getting better to get ready for the tournament. I think we’re playing really good basketball right now going into tournament play.”
Ferry noted that his team must limit turnovers, play strong defense and make both layups and free throws.
Tonight’s game marks the 21st game between the Dukes and Billikens, of which 10th-year A-10 member Saint Louis leads the series 11-9 and 10-6 in regular season A-10 play. Saint Louis has met Duquesne only once in the A-10 Championship as a No. 7 seed defeating the No.10 Dukes 78-77 in the first round in Atlantic City in 2007. The Billikens reached their fourth consecutive loss with a 67-51 defeat at Richmond on Saturday.
Five of Saint Louis’ top eight scorers are freshman and six are in their first year.
“They’re a pretty good team defensively on the court of course, so we know we have to push them out on offense,” Duquesne junior guard Jeremiah Jones said. “Defensively, we have to run shooters off the three-point line and make sure to rebound, and I think if we do those things, we’ll be okay.”
Jones is looking forward to playing once again in the Barclays Center.
“It’s a special experience playing in a professional venue. It’s always fun, so we’ll see how it goes.”
The game will be broadcast on the Atlantic 10 Network and PCNC locally, ESPN 970 AM, iHeartRadio and 3WS HD2, and will be streaming live on Red Zone Media (http://www.redzonemedia.com/viewschedule.asp?sportID=2&SchoolID=52).
