Something happened at the A.J. Palumbo Center Wednesday night that had not occurred in 48 years: Saint Francis defeated Duquesne 67-52 at the Dukes’ own Pittsburgh locale.
Saint Francis hit 10 of their first 15 shots, opening with a 21-8 lead in the Red Flash’s wire-to-wire win. Saint Francis never looked back.
Junior guard Derrick Colter led the Dukes with 17 points, while junior guard Jeremiah Jones contributed 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the effort.
The Red Flash’s senior forward Earl Brown led his team in netting 12 of his 16 total points in the first half, helping Saint Francis gain momentum early and quickly. Brown is now a mere seven points shy of becoming the 39th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. Junior forward Ronnie Drinnon led his team and the court with 15 rebounds.
Wednesday’s game marks the fourth consecutive loss for Duquesne (3-5) and shatters the Dukes’ 11-game series winning streak against Saint Francis that dates back to 1990. Duquesne previously had won 16 consecutive games over Saint Francis at home, with the Red Flash’s last win in Pittsburgh dating back to 1966 at the Civic Arena.
“They’re a solid team,” Jones said. “They play together on offense and they’re a pretty good defensive team as well and tonight they did a good job offensive rebounding.”
The Red Flash outrebounded the Dukes 45-29 and held Duquesne to a season-low 52 points.
“I think our program, our team, has hit a bad spot,” head coach Jim Ferry said. “We’ve hit rock bottom in our identity.”
Ferry noted that his team had eight consecutive possessions, seven consecutive stops and scored twice at the start of the second half. He stated that the team’s confidence was down, creating a snowball effect.
“Our front court is really young [guys], and I thought that was glaring today against a physical and older front court,” Ferry stated. “I thought Earl Brown and Ronny Drinnon totally outplayed our front court tonight with some aggressiveness, scoring, and obviously Drinnon getting 15 rebounds. It was experience and age versus youth.”
Duquesne never saw Saint Francis’ lead fall lower than six points, however, Jones is hopeful in his team’s ability to come back from their loss.
“I think we’ve got the right guys, the right coaching staff and they’re preaching to us the right things, and we’ve got to go out there and execute it.”
Duquesne faces UMass Lowell (6-4) on Saturday at the A.J. Palumbo Center at 1:00 pm ET in its last pre-Christmas contest.
