Pittsburgh – After picking up one conference win last season, Duquesne has already tied their most recent Atlantic-10 win total, in early January. Before a crowd of just over 2300, which witnessed quite a few electrifying basketball players, the Dukes beat Fordham (7-7) by a score of 87-81 to improve their overall record to 8-5. The win marks the fifth straight for Duquesne, the most consecutive wins for the program since 2010-2011.
Fordham’s backcourt was led by Jon Severe, the leading scorer in the conference. But even Severe’s 35 points wasn’t enough to push the visiting Rams over Duquesne. Senior Branden Frazier, the A-10’s third leading scorer who finished with 15 points, also gave Duquesne some trouble, especially late.
Ovie Soko once again led the charge for Duquesne, scoring 29 points on 10 of 15 from the field. He also fell one rebound short of a double-double. “The game plan was basically to have all five guys guarding [Severe],” he said. Even so, Severe made a whopping seven 3-pointers, while only missing five shots from behind the arc.
“That’s why we recruited him so hard,” said Coach Ferry. But the second year coach was largely optimistic after his team’s strong performance. “If he scores 35 and we win over the next four years, obviously we’ll take that any night,” he said.
Duquesne, as in the last four games, meant business from the start. The Dukes took what the defense was giving them – and the inside looks were open all game long. Duquesne’s forwards – Soko, McKoy, and Jeremiah Jones proved themselves clearly superior to Fordham’s shallower lineup down low. They held Travion Leonard and Ryan Rhoomes of Fordham to just 11 points total, often frustrating the two opposing big-men by forcing them into difficult offensive situations.
The first few minutes of the first half for Fordam was the Jon Severe show. The freshman guard had the team’s first ten points. But Duquesne maintained a steady lead, which got wider after a big three-point play by Soko that followed two controversial charging calls, which had Ferry red-faced and ecstatic on the bench. Minutes later, Colter cut through the lane with the ball, and skipped a pass off the backboard to a high-flying Soko, who threw the ball into the basket with authority. For a few minutes afterward, the modest crowd of 2300 sounded like 23,000, as every fan in the Palumbo Center was on their feet and yelling for the next couple possessions.
“Soko looked like a young Amare Stoudemire,” Fordham coach Tom Pecora said of the senior’s first half performance, which include 20 points and 4 rebounds. Pecora also cited Colter dominance in the assists and intangibles column, even though he did not score a lot of points.
At the end of the first half, it looked as if the Dukes could mail it in for the remaining twenty minutes – but that simply isn’t the way things work in the A-10. Fordham came out of the gate with more attitude in the second half, cutting Duquesne’s long-held double-digit lead to just six with a couple minutes to play.
“[Our lead] went from 20 to 12 in a heartbeat, and it really wasn’t mistakes we made,” said Ferry. Frazier, who missed a lot in the first half, hit key shots, and Fordham got some calls to go their way, such as an offensive foul immediately following a missed fast break layup by Duquesne’s Jerry Jones. Severe cut the lead to three with 34 seconds remaining, after he rattled home three free throws after a touchy Duquesne foul on a long 3-point attempt. But ultimately, time was on Duquesne’ side, and the home team was able to make free throws down the stretch to avoid a come-from-behind defeat.
“We’re going to go into every game thinking we’re going to win it,” a relieved, yet proud coach Ferry said after the game. “But now we have to turn around and get ready for the next game.”
Duquesne hosts LaSalle this Sunday at the Palumbo Center.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
