Jan. 19, 2004

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TELEVISION: Cox-3 (Rhode Island viewing area only)
DUQUESNE RADIO: KQV-AM (1410) with Ray Goss & George Von Benko
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GAME TRACKER:

DUKES ON ROAD FOR SIX OF NEXT EIGHT

Duquesne (7-8, 2-2), winner of five of its last seven, hits the road to face Rhode Island (12-6, 1-3) on Wednesday, Jan. 21. The game, scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. tip, will be televised in the Rhode Island viewing area by Cox-3 (fiber feed). The Dukes, who are 0-4 on the road this season, are coming off back-to-back home wins over Xavier (71-58) and UMass (88-62). The wins marked the first time DU has defeated XU and UMass in the same Atlantic 10 season (Xavier joined the league in 1995-96). The Rhode Island game begins a two-game road trip that concludes at George Washington on Saturday afternoon. The Dukes will not return home between games, but will spend a night in New Jersey en route to Washington D.C. In all, six of Duquesne's next eight games will be on the road.

SO CLOSE

Duquesne, which is looking for its first road win of the season, has certainly come close. DU's first three road games of the season were all overtime losses (88-84 at West Virginia, 64-61 at Akron and 74-69 at Minnesota). The fourth loss was at Richmond, 69-66, on Jan. 3. The Dukes led for all but 3:21 of the WVU game, came back from 10 down with 11:21 left at Akron and held double digit second half leads at Minnesota (+18 with 14:29 to go) and at Richmond (+15 at the 16:33 mark).

DU vs. URI

The all-time series is tied at 21-21, with URI holding a 14-8 edge in games played at Kingston ... in A10 regular-season games, the series is also tied at 18-18 ... the Dukes ended a 20-game A10 road losing streak with a 72-69 win at URI on Feb. 9, 2002 ... last year, the two teams met twice in the span of three days with Rhode Island defeating Duquesne 76-71 in the regular-season finale at the Palumbo Center on March 8 and also beating the Dukes 75-73 in the first round of the A10 Championship at Kingston on March 10.

DUQUESNE LATELY

• The last time Duquesne - winner of its last two Atlantic 10 games - won three league games in a row was in early February of 2002 when Danny Nee's Dukes defeated Fordham and UMass at home and won 72-69 at Rhode Island
• Sophomore guard Jack Higgins came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points in 19 minutes vs. UMass on Sunday ... Higgins went 6-of-7 from the 3-point arc
• Freshman Kieron Achara posted his first career double-double (10-11) vs. the Minutemen ... Achara also blocked three shots to up his team-high total to 21
• Senior F Elijah Palmer is shooting a team-best 59.3% from the field ... it is the best shooting percentage by a DU player since Alan Watkins shot 60.9% in 1990-91
• Junior PG Martin Osimani is averaging a school record 6.07 assists/game
• Four of Duquesne's eight losses have come on the road by a combined 15 points, with three of those games decided in overtime
• The average margin of defeat in DU's eight losses is 8.3 ppg.

MORE ON URI

Rhode Island is 12-6 on the season with a 8-2 mark at home ... the two home losses came on Nov. 23 to Lubbock Christian (74-68) and Jan. 11 to A10 foe Xavier (81-67) ... Rhode Island owns impressive non-conference wins over Miami, Fla. (54-53), Providence (89-79) and Charlotte (96-90) ... the Rams also lost by four, 69-65, at Syracuse in late November ... URI, which is coming off a 74-71 loss at St. Bonaventure on Saturday, is looking to end a three-game losing skid ... the Rams boast three double-digit scorers in Dawan Robinson (17.8 ppg.), Brian Woodward (14.6) and Dustin Hellenga (12.0) ... the trio has accounted for 81 of Rhode Island's 94 3-pointers made (86.2%) ... URI is outrebounding its opponents by an average of +7.0 per game.

LIGHTS OUT!

Duquesne is shooting 53.7 percent from the field in its last two games, including 14-of-30 (46.7%) from the 3-point arc. Six different players have hit at least on 3-pointer over that span. Four DU regulars are shooting 50 percent or better from the field on the season: Kieron Achara (62.5%), Elijah Palmer (59.3%), Ron Dokes (51.1%) and Jack Higgins (50.0%).

BENCH IMPRESS

Duquesne head coach Danny Nee, who has consistently used a nine- to 10-man rotation all season, is beginning to see his investment pay off. The DU bench, which averaged 15.0 ppg. in the first nine games, has upped its production to 26.9 ppg. in the Dukes last nine outings. "Some people quietly have been criticizing us, asking why we go so deep on the bench," said Nee following the UMass game. "We go deep on the bench because we don't really have a 'star' lineup yet. All these young kids have potential." Added senior forward Elijah Palmer: "We're deep enough that everyone knows they are going to play. The guys coming in off the bench give us the same energy as the starters. They've been doing a good job of that." DU's balance is evident in the fact that no player is averaging over 30 minutes per game, and nine average over 15 minutes per outing.

DEAR SANTA

When Duquesne center Ron Dokes headed to his hometown of South Bend, Ind. for Christmas break, he was coming off a one point, one rebound performance at Minnesota on Dec. 23. We don't know what he asked Santa for Christmas, but we do know whatever happened has paid dividends, for in seven post-Christmas games, Dokes is averaging 12.0 ppg., 6.3 rpg. and is shooting 65.2 percent (30-of-46) from the field. "I came back with a lot more passion after the Christmas break," said Dokes following a 26-point, 12-rebound performance vs. Robert Morris on Dec. 28. The passion has been evident as Dokes, who was shooting 35.7 percent from the field in DU's eight pre-Christmas games, has brought his overall field goal percentage up to 51.1 percent.