The intensity in practice for Duquesne didn’t slow down, but picked up in the days between Wednesday night’s crushing loss to George Washington and Saturday night’s game against Xavier. Coach Ferry ran his team through a few days’ worth of physically rigorous drills in preparation for their game against the Musketeers at Consol Energy Center. We know Ferry isn’t giving up. From his team’s performance Saturday night, we know they aren’t ready to give up just yet either, despite the eleven-game losing streak.
Although their points often came in spurts, Duquesne (7-16, 0-9) strung together a solid overall game. Duquesne got out to a brief lead early on thanks to two 3-pointers from Jerry Jones and some inspired minutes from Andre Marhold. Perhaps this stretch earned him a larger chunk of playing time—his 32 minutes were second on the team. Jones finished with 11 points, while Marhold chalked up 9 points and 10 rebounds. Over 50 percent of Duquesne’s shots were 3-pointers, of which they made 9 of 33. Jones didn’t seem to see a problem with the shot selection though.
“We were hitting most of our shots so we just stuck with it. We just couldn’t hit them when we needed to,” replied the junior guard/forward.
Midway through the opening half, Duquesne started to get sloppy. Jerry Jones and Johnson forced a few shots, and Martin and Marhold committed costly turnovers. The outside shooting of Winters and Jones, however, gave the Dukes a fighting chance.
Duquesne really caught fire in the 2nd half thanks to an 18-4 run in the first seven minutes. This run earned them a 47-37 lead, their second of the game. “Duquesne is a really good team in transition, they got us on our heels, and knocked down some threes,” admitted Xavier coach Chris Mack. Mack gave Duquesne a lot of credit for the way they played.
“I thought our guys really competed tonight, significantly better than the George Washington game,” Ferry agreed.
Unfortunately the ten point lead evaporated all too quickly. When Xavier started feeding the post, they were hard to stop. They worked diligently yet effectively to break down the double digit advantage, something for which Chris Mack seemed to be rightfully proud of: “To go down ten and then have the fortitude to come back and win the game says a lot.”
Semaj Christon and Isaiah Philmore led the charge for Xavier with 16 points each. Travis Taylor had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Quevyn Winters had a season high 19 points, while Jeremiah Jones had 11 points.
After the game, Ferry seemed to be especially pleased with the efforts of his freshmen once again. Winters in particular shot well from the outside and hit three from behind the arc. Sean Johnson did not even start the game, and was taken out in the seven minutes or so after a flagrant foul. He finished the game with just 5 points.
Duquesne will travel to face Temple on Thursday before coming home to host Rhode Island at the Palumbo Center next Saturday.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
