The Duquesne Dukes ended a four-game losing streak with a 79-63 win Saturday at the A.J. Palumbo Center against UMass Lowell, remaining undefeated (2-0) in the series.
Duquesne’s junior guard Micah Mason hit a game-high five 3-pointers in leading his team with 17 points. Junior guards Derrick Colter and Jordan Stevens and freshman forward Jordan Robinson added 10 points each.
Stevens had a career-high and game-high 7 assists, helping the Dukes in assisting on 21-of-29 field goals.
UMass Lowell’s redshirt freshman guard Jahad Thomas led the court with a game-high 19 points. Senior guard Chad Holley and graduate student guard scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Dukes began a 9-0 run with 3:11 left in the first half before the River Hawks’ redshirt senior forward Kerry Weldon sank 2 free throws with 0:23 left in play. Duquesne closed the half leading 40-24.
Duquesne shot 12-for-21 (57.1 percent) from the 3-point range, 29-for-56 (51.8 percent) from the floor overall, and managed to outscore UMass Lowell 23-9 in fast break points.
Contributing to the team’s high 3-point percentage was Mason, who hit 5-of-6 attempts from the arc, marking his seventh career game with five or more 3-pointers.
Senior forward Dominique McKoy finished with a team-high 6 rebounds.
The team’s successful shooting inside and outside the arc was largely attributed to confidence.
“I think that what happened today is that we were finally tired of losing and we came in with a good attitude,” Mason said. “We had confidence and we continued to play like that throughout the whole game.”
McKoy agreed that the team’s confidence played a major role in their win.
“I felt like we played harder today defensively and I felt like it was more together,” McKoy stated. “The last couple games we’ve been lacking confidence—guys haven’t been shooting like they usually shoot. I feel like today everyone did their roles and did them well.”
Duquesne collected 16 points from post players Robinson and sophomore center Darius Lewis.
“[It] was our plan from the get-go to go inside,” head coach Jim Ferry remarked. “I thought we had an advantage with our size and athleticism.”
Saturday’s game showed a stark difference between Duquesne’s win against UMass Lowell and loss Wednesday to Saint Francis. Ferry noted the atmosphere of both games as complete opposites.
“Everybody here on Wednesday just felt the tightness in the gym. You just felt that negative vibe in the gym and we just haven’t allowed that. We lifted that.”
Duquesne’s next game will be Sunday Dec. 28th against Maryland Eastern Shore at 2:00 p.m. ET at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
