Pittsburgh—Forget the VCU Rams, Duquesne barely outplayed Treveon Graham in the 1st half Saturday night. Graham had 17 points in the first half, almost surpassing Duquesne’s 18. The game was as good as over by the time the teams headed into the locker room.
It was a night of milestones for #22 (AP) VCU. Not only did the Rams pick up their 13th straight win, but they also broke the record for most points scored by a college basketball team at Consol Energy Center. In addition, Coach Shaka Smart became the 12th coach in college basketball history to reach 100 wins in his first four seasons.
Graham wasn’t even the top scorer Saturday night. Rob Brandenburg managed to outdo his team’s leading scorer with 22 points to Graham’s 20. It was Graham, however, that put the game out of reach in the 1st half, thanks in part to his four 3-pointers.
Duquesne’s numbers from that half were horrendous. The home team went 0 for 9 from 3-point range with 10 turnovers and only 1 assist. VCU showed nothing that the Dukes weren’t expecting though. “That’s just a far superior basketball team than we are in every aspect. I think they’re better than the [22nd ] ranked team in the country,” Coach Ferry admitted afterwards. Ferry’s one and only excuse after the loss was that his team only had one day to prepare for one of the better teams in the country.
“This league is a beast, it’s about each game. We learn from each game, we prepare for each game,” he added.
The Dukes were hoping to make things a little closer than what they were, and for the first six minutes they enjoyed a measure of success. Then disaster struck—in the next 11:08 VCU would go on to a 26-2 run that sucked the life out of the home team and the crowd. Mamadou Datt’s turnaround jumper with under three minutes to go in the half was met with a degree of mock applause. “That’s their goal, to speed you up, to turn the tempo up. They did a good job on defense,” Derrick Colter allowed.
VCU as a team loves to force turnovers via their stingy full court press. They forced Duquesne into 19 miscues throughout the game, which isn’t the end of the world for the Dukes, considering VCU likes that number to be somewhere in the twenties. Credit Duquesne though for turning things around a bit in the 2nd half. The Dukes (7-11, 0-4) actually played quite even with the Rams (16-3, 4-0) in the final half of play. They were only outscored by one point (45-46). Although way too little too late, they were finally able to find their shooting touch and wound up going 7 for 10 from behind the arc in the latter half.
Derrick Colter was also able to make plays throughout the game for Duquesne—he finished with 15 points. Quevyn Winters added 12.
VCU, who was about 48 hours removed from a thrilling overtime win over St. Joe’s, found a slightly easier path to victory Saturday night. Coach Ferry did mention after the game that he was impressed with the discipline of VCU. That statement speaks for itself when you look at where VCU is and where Duquesne is as a program.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
