Feb. 9, 2004

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YOU AGAIN?

Duquesne (9-11, 4-5) heads to Philadelphia to take on La Salle (8-13, 3-5) on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 7:00 p.m., in the second meeting in 15 days between the two schools. On Jan. 28 the Explorers, behind 51 points from Gary Neal and Steven Smith, defeated Duquesne 74-70 at Pittsburgh. Duquesne, which has recovered from a 2-6 start to win seven of its last 12 games, will be looking for its third road win of the season. The last time a Duquesne team won three road games was 1994-95 (5-8). Duquesne is coming off a 71-51 home loss to Richmond on Saturday. The Dukes shot a season-low 32.5 percent from the field in posting their second lowest point total of the season. Martin Osimani became the eighth different DU player to lead the team in scoring this season with 10 points vs. the Spiders. La Salle, which is 3-4 at home, dropped an 89-63 decision vs. #3 (AP) Saint Joseph's at the Palestra on Saturday. This is the first of three consecutive road games for the Dukes. Duquesne will head to Dayton for a Sun. afternoon (Feb. 15) A-10 TV contest and then will return to Philly for another Wed. night game (Feb. 18), this time at Temple.

DUKES VS. EXPLORERS

La Salle, winner of the last five meetings, leads the overall series 31-23 ... at Pittsburgh Duquesne holds a 16- 9 edge, while at Philadelphia La Salle leads 20-5 ... at neutral sites DU leads 2-1 ... the home team had won 12 in a row (six each) in the series until La Salle ended the streak with a 62-54 win at the Palumbo Center on Jan. 16, 2002 ... the Explorers also won at Duquesne last season (82-74 on Feb. 8), giving the Explorers sweeps in the last two seasons ... the 2001-02 sweep was the first by either school since La Salle joined the A-10 in 1995-96 ... La Salle took the first game of this year's series by a 74-70 score at Pittsburgh on Jan. 28 ... La Salle is one of three current Atlantic 10 members the Dukes have yet to defeat on the road (Dayton and Richmond are the others) ... Duquesne's last win at La Salle came on Jan. 20, 1979 by a 90-89 count when the Explorers were members of the East Coast Conference (a span of 11 games) ... the DU/La Salle series dates back to Feb. 10, 1940.

DUQUESNE LATELY

• Junior PG Martin Osimani averaged 10.5 points and 8.0 assists in two games last week ... it is the first time this season he has scored in double digits in consecutive games (11 at St. Bonaventure and 10 vs. Richmond) ... his 6.05 apg. average is the best in school history
• Leading scorer Elijah Palmer was limited to just two field goal attempts in scoring five points in 30 minutes vs. Richmond on Saturday ... the UR game ended an eight-game double-digit scoring streak during which Palmer averaged 17.0 ppg.
• Duquesne's opponents are shooting just .399 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
• DU is shooting .267 from the 3-point arc in its last four games (16-of-60).

ON THE ROAD

Duquesne is 2-5 on the road this season, with four of the losses coming by a combined 15 points. The Dukes began the season with three consecutive overtime losses on the road: at West Virginia (88-84) on Dec. 13, at Akron (64-61) on Dec. 17 and at Minnesota (74-69) on Dec. 23 and opened conference play with a 69-66 defeat at Richmond on Jan. 3. DU 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). The Dukes snapped the fourgame losing streak in impressive fashion with a 72-55 win at Rhode Island on Jan. 21 and added a second A10 win at St. Bonaventure (85-78 on Feb. 1). The 17-point margin of victory at URI matched the largest road win in DU A10 history. In addition, Duquesne's two road conference wins are its most since 1994-95. Duquesne has yet to beat three current Atlantic 10 members on the road: Dayton (0-8), La Salle (0-8) and Richmond (0-3). DU's top road victims in league play are: Rhode Island (9 wins, 2003-04 last), St. Bonaventure (8 wins, 2003-04 last), George Washington (6 wins, 1999-00 last) and UMass (5 wins, 1988-89 last).

FOUL PLAY

Duquesne, which is looking to snap a five-game series losing streak against La Salle, can look at the Explorers' ability to get to the free throw line as a game key. In the five wins, the Explorers have scored more than one third of their total points from the foul line in outscoring the Dukes 127-63 from the stripe. La Salle has made 39 more free throws than Duquesne has attempted in the last five meetings between the two:

                       LA SALLE        DUQUESNE                           FINALDATE OF GAME            FT-FTA          FT-FTA        SITE    RESULT       SCOREJan. 28, 2004 _________ 24-29 _________ 15-24 _________ H ______ L _______ 70-74Mar. 1, 2003 __________ 28-36 _________ 12-15 _________ A ______ L _______ 66-71Feb. 8 ,2003 __________ 31-36 _________ 15-20 _________ H ______ L _______ 74-82Feb. 19, 2002 _________ 23-29 __________ 9-10 _________ A ______ L _______ 65-80Jan. 16, 2002 _________ 21-33 _________ 12-19 _________ H ______ L _______ 54-62
TOTALS   _____________ 127-163 ________ 63-88    ________________________ 329-369Averages ____________ 25.4-32.6 ______ 12.6-17.6 _______________________ 65.8-73.8FT Percentage _________ 77.9% _________ 71.6% __________________________ -8.0 ppg.

DUKES IN FEBRUARY

Danny Nee's Dukes are 7-9 all time in the month of February with a 4-3 record in 2001-02, a 2-5 mark last year and 1-1 record this season. The '02 Dukes, which began the month 3-0 for the first time since 1970-71, posted the school's first winning Feb. since 1993-94.

MORE ON LA SALLE

The Explorers are coming off back-to-back losses to Rhode Island (58-54 at home) and No. 3 (AP) Saint Joseph's (89-63 at the Palestra) ... Gary Neal (19.7 ppg.) and Steven Smith (16.5 ppg.), who scored 26 and 25 points respectively in La Salle's 74-70 win over Duquesne on Jan. 28, lead the Explorers in scoring ... Smith scored 24 in the Saint Joseph's loss on Saturday ... La Salle is 1-2 at home in league play with a 66-55 win over Richmond and a 77-75 loss to Dayton to go along with the loss to Rhode Island ... this is the sixth meeting between Duquesne head coach Danny Nee and his former assistant Billy Hahn ... Hahn was a member of Nee's staff at Ohio University for six seasons from 1980-81 through 1985-86 ... Hahn succeeded Nee as the head coach at Ohio after Nee left to take the top spot at Nebraska.

DUQUESNE QUICK HITS

• Duquesne began the week as the only Atlantic 10 school with six different players with at least 10 3-pointers made this season ... Saint Joseph's, George Washington and Fordham are the closest with five each
• Playmaking point guard Martin Osimani, who has attempted four or fewer shots in 14 of 20 games played, has attempted at least five shots in three of DU's last four games (he's averaging 6.8 ppg. over that span) ... he leads the team with 121 assists ... his 6.05 apg. is the best in school history (ahead of Norm Nixon's 6.00 apg. in 1973-74 & 1975-76) ... 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-61 (21.3%) from the arc over DU's last 13 outings ... Tricco, who has hit at least one 3-pointer in 39 of 50 career games at Duquesne, has not converted from the arc in three of DU's last seven games ... despite his 3-point struggles, Tricco is averaging just 1.4 fewer points per game than last season (10.4-to-9.0 ppg.)
• Bryant McAllister is averaging a team-high 29.1 minutes per game ... despite an 0-of-7 outing vs. Richmond on Saturday, he is shooting 46.6 percent (34-of-73) from the field in his last nine games
• Elijah Palmer's .575 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
• Jack Higgins has come off the bench to score in double digits in six of the 14 games he has played since becoming eligible on Dec. 17 ... he has led the Dukes in scoring three times including two of the last six games ... 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 six games, is shooting 50.0 percent from the 3-point arc
• Duquesne has led at the half in 12 of 20 games and is 7-5 in those games
• DU is 2-5 in games decided by 5 or fewer points, 6- 5 when holding opponents under 40 percent shooting and 4-1 when scoring 80 or more points
• Danny Nee enters the La Salle 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 ... eight different Dukes have either led or tied for the team lead in scoring in a single game: Palmer (8 times), Higgins (3), Jimmy Tricco (3), Dokes (2), McAllister (2), 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 seven road games, the margin stands at -5.8 with one double digit loss (83-63 at George Washington).