Feb. 16, 2004

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DUQUESNE RADIO: KQV-AM (1410) with Ray Goss & George Von Benko
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DUKES RETURN TO PHILLY TO FACE TEMPLE

Duquesne (9-13, 4-7) returns to Philadelphia for the second time in seven days to face Temple (11-10, 5-5) on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7:00 p.m. The Dukes, who suffered a 71-55 loss at La Salle last Wednesday, and followed that with a 70-58 defeat at Dayton on Sunday, are looking to snap a three-game losing streak in the last of three consecutive road games. Temple, which extended its winning streak to four with a 59-53 non-conference home win over Georgetown on Saturday, is 5-3 at the Liacouras Center.

EAST VS. WEST

Duquesne is 3-1 - with road wins at Rhode Island and at St. Bonaventure - vs. teams from the Atlantic 10 East. Temple on the other hand is 0-3 against the A10 West with losses at GW, at Dayton and home to Richmond.

DUKES vs. OWLS

Temple leads the overall series 32-12, including a 16-5 edge in games played at Philadelphia ... Duquesne snapped an eight-game Temple series win streak with a 61-54 victory last year at the Palumbo Center ... the last time DU won back-to-back games over Temple was during the 1995 season ... the Owls have won the last four meetings at Philadelphia, with Duquesne's last win in the City of Brotherly Love coming on Jan. 30, 1995 by a 62-55 count ... two years ago, the Owls went 15-of-32 (46.9%) from the 3-point arc in defeating the Dukes 85-48 at the Liacouras Center ... the Dukes went 19-51 from the field (37.3%), including 8-of-30 (26.7%) from the arc in the loss ... Duquesne head coach Danny Nee is 1-1 against Temple Hall of Fame coach John Chaney.

DUQUESNE LATELY

• Duquesne is 3-1 against the Atlantic 10 East with wins over UMass, at Rhode Island and at St. Bonaventure ... the lone loss came at home to then-No. 9 (AP) Saint Joseph's
• DU has scored a total of just 164 points in its last three games (an average of 54.7 ppg.) ... DU's season average stands at 70.0 ppg.
• On the other hand, Temple has held its last four opponents under 55 points (49.3 ppg.)
• DU is 9-3 this season when scoring 70 or more points, and 0-10 when held under 70
• The Dukes are 9-of-54 (16.7%) from the 3-point arc in their last three games
• DU hit four of its last nine 3-point attempts to close out the game at Dayton ... DU began the Dayton game 0-of-12 from the arc
• Duquesne's opponents are shooting just .402 from the field ... the defensive field goal percentage ranks third in the Atlantic 10 and is the best by a DU team since the 1970-71 NCAA Tournament-bound Dukes (21-4) held opponents to a .389 mark ... last year, Duquesne's opponents shot .445 from the field
• Freshman C Kieron Achara scored a career-high 13 points in 19 minutes of action at Dayton ... he is shooting 60.3 percent from the field for the season.

MORE ON TEMPLE

Temple, the preseason pick for second in the Atlantic 10 East, finds itself exactly were predicted through 10 conference games ... the Owls are 5-5 in the league overall with a 2-2 record in home conference games (wins over Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure and losses to Richmond and Saint Joseph's) ... Temple is 0-3 against schools from the Atlantic 10 West with Duquesne, La Salle and Xavier remaining on the schedule ... the Owls are led by 6-4 senior guard David Hawkins who leads the A10 in scoring at 24.3 points per game ... Hawkins, who has scored 20 or more points in a school record 16 straight games, ranked third in the nation in scoring through games of Feb. 9 ... Hawkins scored a team-high 19 in last year's 61-54 loss to Duquesne ... he scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the first half of Saturday's 59-53 win over Georgetown ... in three visits to Temple's Liacouras Center, Duquesne - which is looking for its first win in the building - is averaging 49.0 points and has shot .274 from the 3-point arc (20-of-73) ... DU's high point total at the Liacouras Center is 62 in a 75-62 loss on Jan. 21, 1998.

TWO VETERANS

The Duquesne/Temple game features the two most experienced head coaches in the Atlantic 10 Conference in Temple's John Chaney and Duquesne's Danny Nee. Chaney ranks No. 1 among A10 coaches in wins (704) and years coaching (32nd season), while Nee ranks second in both categories with 396 victories in this his 24th season.

LIGHTS OUT!

Despite, shooting a combined .396 from the field in it last three games, Duquesne's overall shooting percentage stands at .458 percent - good for fourth-best in the Atlantic 10. Three DU regulars are shooting 50 percent or better: Kieron Achara (60.3%), Elijah Palmer (56.5%), Ron Dokes (53.3%).

DOING IT WITH DEFENSE

Duquesne opponents are shooting .402 percent from the field, which is the third-best defensive field goal percentage in the Atlantic 10. DU has held 11 opponents under 40 percent so far this season, and is 6-5 in those games. Only two teams (at West Virginia and at George Washington) have topped the 50 percent mark against the Dukes this year. To put the 2003-04 defensive effort in perspective, consider that last year DU opponents shot .445 percent. The last time a Duquesne team held its opponents under 40 percent shooting for an entire season was 1970-71. That year, the 21-4 NCAA Tournament-bound Dukes limited opponents to a .389 percent success rate.

DUQUESNE QUICK HITS

• Duquesne is 21-of-95 (22.1%) from the 3-point arc in its last six games ... coincidentally, the Dukes are 1-5 over that span
• DU, which has hit at least one 3-pointer in 310 consecutive games, saw that streak in danger in each of the last two games ... at La Salle on Feb. 11, DU did not hit its first 3-pointer until the 13:06 mark of the second half in going 1-of-14 from the arc ... at Dayton, the Dukes misfired on their first 12 attempts before Martin Osimani ended the drought with a three at the 7:38 mark of the second half
• Playmaking point guard Martin Osimani, who has attempted four or fewer shots in 14 of 22 games played, has attempted at least five shots in four of DU's last six games (he's averaging 5.7 ppg. over that span) ... he leads the team with 128 assists ... his 5.82 apg. is the fourth-best in school history behind Norm Nixon's 6.00 apg. in 1973-74 & 1975-76 and 5.93 apg. mark in 1976-77
• Osimani, who posted his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 assists at St. Bonaventure on Feb. 1, is the first player in school history with three 10+ assist games in the same season
• Jimmy Tricco, who hit four 3-pointers in four of the Dukes' first six games (20-of-48, 41.7%), has converted just 13-of-66 (19.7%) from the arc over DU's last 16 outings ... Tricco, who has hit at least one 3-pointer in 39 of 52 career games at Duquesne, has not converted from the arc in six of DU's last nine games ... despite his 3-point struggles, Tricco is averaging just two fewer points per game than last season (10.4-to-8.4 ppg.)
• Bryant McAllister is averaging a team-high 29.2 minutes per game ... he shook off an 0-of-7 outing vs. Richmond to hit 5-of-7 from the field at La Salle and followed that with 12 points at Dayton ... he is shooting 47.8 percent (43-of-90) from the field in his last 11 games
• Elijah Palmer's .565 field goal percentage is the best by a DU player since 6-11 Derrick Alston shot .578 from the field in 1993-94 (min. 200 points) ... Palmer, who went 9-of-9 from the field in scoring 20 vs. George Mason earlier this year, topped the 20-point mark for the fifth time this season with 21 at St. Bonaventure ... he has shot .500 or better from the field in 17 of 22 games (including an 0-1 performance prior to getting injured vs. Cornell back on Dec. 31) ... Palmer leads the team with 30 dunks
• Jack Higgins has come off the bench to score in double digits in six of the 16 games he has played since becoming eligible on Dec. 17 and has led the Dukes in scoring three times ... Higgins' two 20-point games are second on the team to Palmer's five ... Higgins, who has hit four or more 3-pointers in three of DU's last eight games, is shooting 45.6 percent from the 3-point arc ... he is over 45 percent despite going 1-of-9 from the arc in DU's last three games
• Duquesne is 4-1 when scoring 80 or more points and 3-1 when holding opponents under 60
• Danny Nee enters the Temple game needing four wins to reach 400 for his career
• All nine of DU's regulars have scored at least 10 points in a game this season and have also either led or tied for the team lead in scoring in a single game: Palmer (9 times), Higgins (3), Jimmy Tricco (3), Dokes (2), McAllister (2), Achara (1), Osimani (1), Pawlak (1) and Ryan Tricco (1)
• Last year, Duquesne's 11 road losses, including three of 35 points or more, came by an average of -18.3 points ... this year, through nine road games, the margin stands at -9.0 with three double digit losses (83-63 at George Washington, 71-55 at La Salle and 70-58 at Dayton)