After a five-game win streak and a high-flying start to Atlantic 10 play, Duquesne’s offense has gone through a bit of a rough patch during the past three games. They have only broken seventy in one of those contests – and that was after playing their worst first half of the season in a game against Saint Joe’s. To make matters worse, the Hawks were lacking the presence of starting forward Ronald Roberts, a household name on Hawk Hill, along with sixth man Isaiah Miles.
An important phenomenon has been the silence of Ovie Soko. This has been especially relevant in the last two outings, where he scored just 10 and 7 points, respectively. This came after the 6-8 senior scored double-digit points in nine straight games and twenty or more in his five games leading up to the LaSalle loss.
Right now, the words of LaSalle coach Dr. John Giannini seem like a recipe of disaster for the Dukes. “We tried to guard [Soko] with all five players,” Giannini said after LaSalle beat Duquesne 75-56. “He can make threes and we’ll live and die by that, but we tried to take away his driving lanes.”
A change in opposing defensive strategy has certainly affected Soko’s amount of field goal attempts per game. In games against Appalachian State and Fordham, two games in which Soko had over 20 points, he attempted over 15 field goals each time. In his past two games since the LaSalle loss, he has taken just 15 shots total. Against VCU, he recorded only five field goal attempts, missing all five.
It isn’t so much that Soko hasn’t been scoring enough points to win; it is the fact that he isn’t getting enough good shots. Don’t fault him – credit the opposing defenses. But now, Duquesne must try to find other ways to win. Whether it means finding other ways to give Soko some better looks, or scoring with different players, Ferry needs to figure a couple things out.
Defenses have done it before and they will do it again. They are going to try and force Soko into tough situations. LaSalle did it last week by taking away his lanes, and it resulted in several uncharacteristic turnovers from Soko.
But there is no reason for the Dukes to be one-dimensional this season. Dominique McKoy has been pretty consistent underneath. Colter is coming off an unprecedented, historic freshman season, and Desmond Ridenour was one of the best junior college players in the country last year, and has performed well off the bench this season. Defenses are going to focus most of their attention on Soko, but there is no reason why that shouldn’t open up lanes for other players.
In the early stages of the next few games, it would be nice to see Duquesne try and find other open looks on the floor, perhaps using Soko as a decoy and having him set screens away from the ball. If the strategy works, it could even open things up for him later in the game – and that would be the ideal outcome. Soko is a talented player. Fordham coach Tom Pecora boldly compared him to a young Amare Stoudemire. He is too talented to only be taking five to ten shots per game, so Ferry must look for different ways to get him the ball.
Duquesne is looking to redeem themselves and recover from a three-game slump when they host #19 Saint Louis at the Palumbo Center Wednesday night. The Billikens have talent at both the guard and forward positions. Forward Dwayne Evans comes in averaging 15.5 points per game, while guard Jordair Jett averages 12.3 ppg. Saint Louis is widely regarded as one of the top mid-major teams in the country.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
