Pittsburgh—Call it a home stand, call it a Burgh-stand, call it what you will. But Duquesne will not be leaving the city of Pittsburgh for a game until December 20th when they travel to Louisiana-Lafayette. Two of Duquesne’s six games in this span will take place at the Consol Energy Center and one will be at Robert Morris.
The first contest of the Dukes’ six game stand in Pittsburgh took place Saturday afternoon against the Maine Black Bears. It was the first ever meeting between the two schools.
Duquesne found themselves in a tight, physical battle throughout most of the game. Both teams had their hot streaks in the 1st half and went into the locker room with the score tied at 37 apeice. The game was back-and-forth until the last seven minutes, when the Dukes put the hammer down and allowed just seven points.
Freshman Jeremiah Jones had the best game of his college career, with 15 points, 3 assists and 2 steals (all career highs). Kadeem Pantophlet shined in the 2nd half, scoring 14 points and shooting 5 of 7 from the field. Two other players (Johnson and Winters) also reached double figures with 13 points each. Derrick Colter got into some foul trouble very early on in the game and only saw two minutes of action in the first half. Binney and Torres split the remainder of the time at point guard until halftime. Colter shook the dust off his shoes and came back to life in the 2nd half, exploding for 8 key points and 4 assists. Aside from a pair of erratic passes toward the end of the game, he ended up performing pretty well.
“I think we really got great contributions from everybody,” Ferry said of his team’s performance. “Our guys did a great job playing to our philosophy.”
Ferry also cited rebounding and free throwing shooting as two more bright spots for his team. Seven players grabbed three or more rebounds for the Dukes (4-3).
Justin Edwards, who was named to the preseason America East all-conference team, was the high scorer for the Black Bears (2-5) with 19 points. Point guard Xavier Pollard chipped in with 17.
In spite of these two high-scoring players, Duquesne did a great job with team defense overall. “We really guarded as a team, which we needed to do today; because I think those two guards are spectacular,” Ferry said in his press conference.
P.J. Torres was ejected from the game due to a flagrant foul with 6:19 left to play. However, this seemed to energize the home team even more down the stretch.
The famous city game is coming up this Wednesday for the Dukes. “We’re going to prepare real well for the game, and come out how we did today—(hopefully) even better,” senior Sean Johnson said about the impending matchup.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
