March 4, 2005

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DUQUESNE CONCLUDES REGULAR SEASON AT UMASS

Duquesne (8-20, 5-10) completes the regular-season portion of the 2004-05 schedule at Massachusetts (15-11, 8-7) on Saturday, Mar. 5 at 2:00 p.m. (EST). (1410 KQV-AM & www.redzonemedia.com). The Dukes need a victory or a La Salle loss to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 West (the Dukes would win a tiebreaker with La Salle by virtue of DU's regular-season series sweep). The Minutemen, who are 10-5 at home this season (3-3 in A-10 action), are in a battle with Fordham for third place in the A-10 East. DU, which is 3-4 on the road in A-10 play, is 7-5 versus teams from the Atlantic 10 East over the last two seasons.

DUKES AND MINUTEMEN

Massachusetts leads the overall series 29-21, however Duquesne has won three of the last four meetings ... the regular-season series has been one of home court advantage with UMass leading 15-5 at home and DU holding a 13-9 advantage at Pittsburgh ... Duquesne snapped a 16-game series losing streak (dating back to 1991) with a 78-69 win over the Minutemen on February 6, 2002 ... the Dukes dropped a 70-55 decision at Amherst in 2003 before bouncing back to take two last season (88-62 at Pittsburgh and 79-76 at Dayton in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship) ... the last time DU took three in a row from UMass was during a four-game streak between 1988 & 1990 ... Duquesne's last win at Massachusetts was during that streak on January 14, 1989 (88-84), a span of nine games.

DUQUESNE LATELY

• Duquesne enters the UMass game with a 3-4 record in conference road games ... the last time DU won four on the A-10 road was in 1980-81 (4-3) ... that is also the last time DU finished at or above .500 in league road games
• Junior guard Bryant McAllister became the 30th 1,000-point scorer in Dukes' history with 12 at Fordham on Wednesday ... he enters the UMass game needing 51 points to become the 17th player in school history to score 500 points in a season (the last was current Houston Rockets guard Mike James who scored 526 on the way to earning First Team All A-10 honors in 1997-98) ... McAllister, a two-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Week, is one of just six A-10 players to win the award multiple times this season
• Sophomore Kieron Achara snapped a streak of four consecutive single-digit games with 10 points and a career-high 14 boards at Fordham
• Senior Martin Osimani, who hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final 17 seconds at Fordham, scored 10 against the Rams ... it was his first double-digit scoring game since Jan. 5 at Dayton.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

A Duquesne win or a La Salle loss -- regardless of what the Dukes do at UMass -- would enable the Dukes to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 West. Duquesne's first round Atlantic 10 Championship opponent will be either Fordham or UMass. If Duquesne finishes fifth, the Dukes will play the fourth-place East team at 6:30 p.m. (EST) on Wed., March 9. If DU is sixth, it will play the third-place team in the East in the second game of the Noon doubleheader (approx. 2:20 p.m.). Duquesne will win any potential tiebreaker with La Salle by virtue of its regular-season sweep, while Fordham would take a tiebreaker with UMass because it has a better divisional record.

FORDHAM LEFTOVERS

Duquesne, which didn't attempt a 3-pointer in the second half, went 0-of-2 from the arc vs. Fordham ending a streak of 344 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer made ... the last time Duquesne did not hit a 3-pointer in a game was on March 11, 1993, when the Dukes went 0-of-16 from the arc in a 59-57 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament win over Detroit Mercy ... DU's two 3-point attempts at Fordham were a season-low, eclipsing the previous low of 1-of-7 in a 76-69 win over UMBC on Dec. 11 ... Duquesne extended its series win streak over Fordham to four ... the last time DU won four in a row over Fordham was during a six-game streak between December of 1954 and March of 1961 ... Bryant McAllister became the 30th member of Duquesne's 1,000-point club on the second of two free throws with 3:14 left in the game ... he was the second consecutive Duke to top the 1,000-point mark at Rose Hill Gym ... Kevin Forney, DU's 29th 1,000-point scorer, reached that plateau in a 74-65 win at Fordham on Feb. 15, 2003 ... the victory ended a streak of 35 consecutive Duquesne losses when scoring under 70 points ... DU's last sub-70 win was a 61-54 victory over Temple on Jan. 8, 2003 at the Palumbo Center ... the win also marked the second consecutive season the Dukes have won three Atlantic 10 road games.

DUQUESNE QUICK NOTES

• Bryant McAllister, who has scored in double figures in 24 of DU's 28 games, began a late-season surge with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting vs. La Salle followed by 27 vs. Richmond on Sunday ... he added 12 - including his 1,000th career point - at Fordham ... McAllister, who scored 18 in the second half to key DU's comeback win over La Salle, also added a career-high 9 assists and a career high-tying 8 rebounds in flirting with a triple-double ... the 6-3 junior has topped the 20 point mark eight times this season (24 vs. Lafayette, 21 vs. Akron, a career-high 30 vs. UMBC, 26 at Dayton, 27 at Xavier, 20 vs. Xavier, 21 vs. La Salle & 27 vs. Richmond) ... he is one of six A-10 players to score 30 or more in a game this year ... (Steven Smith & Jermaine Thomas of La Salle, Kevin Steenberge of Richmond, Stanley Burrell of Xavier and Bryant Dunston of Fordham are the others) ... his 16.0 ppg. scoring average ranks tied for fourth in the league and his 1.79 steals per game (50 total) rank fifth in the A-10 ... the 6-3 junior, who has missed consecutive free throws in a game just once this season, leads the league in free throw shooting percentage at 81.9% (104-of-127) ... McAllister, a two-time A-10 co-Player of the Week, is one of just six league players to win the award multiple times this year
• Kieron Achara, who opened conference play with a career-high 23 points and a career high-tying 11 rebounds in the double-overtime win at Dayton, added his second A-10 double-double at Richmond (11-10) on Feb. 1 and third at Fordham (10-14) on Mar. 2 ... he eclipsed his career scoring high with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting at La Salle on Jan. 29 ... his 14 boards at Fordham were a career high ... the Stirling, Scotland native is shooting a team-best 52.5 percent from the field ... he has posted double-doubles seven times this season (10-11 at New Mexico, 11-10 vs. Lafayette, 15-11 at George Mason, 16-11 vs. UMBC, 23-11 at Dayton, 11-10 at Richmond & 10-14 at Fordham) ... Saint Joseph's Dwayne Jones (14), La Salle's Steven Smith (10) and Fordham's Bryant Dunston (8) are the only A-10 players with more double-doubles than Achara ... Achara has surpassed his blocked shot total from a year ago (33) with 46 ... he currently ranks second on DU's all-time shots blocked list with 79 (leader Derrick Alston had 229 between 1991-94) ... is shooting 55.3% (172-of-311) from the field for his career
• Martin Osimani needs one more 10-assist game for the school career record ... Osimani, who will be playing in his 58th career game at UMass, shares the record for career 10 assist games with Clayton Adams who posted four in 109 career games between 1988-91 ... the Montevideo, Uruguay native currently ranks eighth on the Atlantic 10's career assists per game average list at 5.5 ... Osimani has scored a career-high 16 points twice (at New Mexico and vs. Lafayette) ... his career high entering the season was 11 ... Osimani, who is 40-of-46 from the line this season, saw a streak of 20 consecutive free throws made snapped vs. Youngstown State ... the JC transfer had a streak of 17 free throws made in a row last year ... he hit 3-of-4 from the stripe in the last :17 to help DU to a 61-57 win at Fordham ... Osimani, who has a team-high 139 assists (2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio), tied his career high with three 3-point field goals (in five attempts) at La Salle on Jan. 29 ... he finished the game with 9 points, a career-high 7 rebounds and 9 assists (and two turnovers) in 35 minutes of action ... in his last 10 games, Osimani has handed out 54 assists with 19 turnovers ... he is 11-of-26 (42.3%) from the 3-point arc in his last nine games including a clutch 3-pointer from the top of the key with 6.2 seconds left that gave the Dukes a 71-70 lead in the one-point loss at Richmond
• Senior guard Tyler Bluemling has scored 130 points in 28 games this season ... his career point total in 68 games entering this season was 153 ... he has 61 assists and 31 turnovers as the back-up at the point guard spot (2-to-1 ratio) and is second on the team with a career single-season high 31 3-point field goals ... he has handed out 35 assists with just 16 turnovers in Atlantic 10 games ... Bluemling had 10 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and 0 turnovers 29 minutes at Dayton ... he scored all 10 of his points in the last 1:07 of regulation and first 1:26 of the first overtime period (at total span of 2:33) ... he added a career-high 5 assists in a start vs. George Washington and scored 10 more at Xavier in 25 turnover-free minutes ... he followed that with 9 points (all on 3-pointers), 5 assists and 0 turnovers vs. Dayton at home and posted a season-high 11 points (three 3-pointers) vs. La Salle on Feb. 23 ... broke out of a six-game 3-of-15 3-point shooting slump by going 3-of-5 from the arc vs. La Salle and followed that with a 2-of-4 performance from the arc on senior day vs. Richmond ... is shooting 40.8 percent (20-of-49) from 3-point in A-10 play
• Jack Higgins, who saw his streak of 36-straight games played ended when he missed the first three conference games due to pneumonia, scored a season-high 20 points (4-of-7 from 3-point) in 23 minutes vs. URI in his second game back ... he then scored 11 of the Dukes' first 12 points (15 overall) in returning to the starting lineup for the first time since late November vs. St. Bonaventure on Jan. 23 ... he added 19 points (6-of-13 from 3-point) in 18 minutes off the bench vs. Temple on Feb. 16 ... Higgins is shooting 41.2% from the 3-point arc (28-of-68) and averaging 11.4 ppg. since his return ... he saw a streak of 14 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer snapped with an 0-of-1 performance from the arc on Jan. 27 vs. Richmond and went 0-of-1 from 3-point at Fordham ... Higgins, who finished with 16 assists in 23 games last season, handed out a career-high 9 - all in 14 second-half minutes - at Boston College on Dec. 22 ... to put the outburst in perspective, consider Higgins' next-highest assist game is 4 (at Richmond on Feb. 1)
• Freshman Chauncey Duke, who has just nine turnovers in 472 total minutes on the season, turned it over for the first time since the Dec. 11 UMBC game on Feb. 5 at Saint Joseph's ... his turnover-free streak spanned 10 games ... Duke, who has hit four 3-pointers in a game twice this season (in scoring a season high 12 vs. both North Carolina A&T and Temple), scored on a driving layup with five seconds left in the second overtime to give the Dukes a 94-93 win at Dayton ... he added 9 points in 17 minutes off the bench vs. St. Bonaventure and 11 on 3-of-4 3-point shooting at Saint Joseph's ... his two free throws with 8 seconds left put the cap on DU's 77-72 win over La Salle on Feb. 23 ... Duke started the season 7-of-14 from the 3-point arc (seven g.), before going 1-of-14 from long distance in his next nine outings ... Duke ended a one-month drought by hitting his only 3-point attempt vs. St. Bonaventure on Jan. 23 and is 14-of-31 from the arc (45.2%) in his last 10 games ... Duke missed mid-January conference games at Xavier and vs. Dayton with complications from a stomach virus
• Fellow freshman DeVario Hudson had started 13 of DU's 15 games prior to missing the Feb. 16 Temple game with food poisoning ... he made his return with eight points and six rebounds in 23 minutes at George Washington on Feb. 19 ... the Decatur, Ga. native ranks second on the team with a 5.2 rebounds per game average ... had his top game of the season with a career-high 20 points and a career high-tying 11 rebounds at Richmond ... it was his second double-double (12-11 vs. Akron) of the season ... went 7-of-8 from the field in scoring 16 points at Fordham ... added nine rebounds and two blocks vs. the Rams
• Redshirt freshman Sean McKeon, who missed four late November-early December games with mononucleosis, made his first career start vs. Rhode Island (one rebound in 9 minutes) ... he also started on Feb. 16 vs. Temple ... is averaging 13.1 min./g. in conference play ... he scored 8 points in 14 minutes at Dayton on Jan. 5 and added a pair of blocked shots both vs. St. Bonaventure and at La Salle ... he scored 9 points in a season-high 25 minutes on Feb. 5 at Saint Joseph's ... his eight field goal attempts (4-of-8) vs. the Hawks were a season high ... added a season-high six boards in 18 minutes at GW
• JC transfer Keith Gayden had his top game of the season back on Nov. 24 with 15 points and 9 rebounds in a 72-69 loss to West Virginia ... all four of his double-digit scoring games came in the first 12 games of the season ... the Kennedy-King College product started five of the first eight games of the season before assuming his current role off the bench ... 49 of his 108 rebounds this season have come at the offensive end ... has pulled down a season high nine boards in two of his last five outings (vs. Temple and La Salle)
• Duquesne has used 12 different starting lineups, with all 11 scholarship players starting at least once
• Duquesne is 7-5 this season when scoring 70 or more points and 1-15 when scoring fewer than 70 ... when holding opponents under 70 points, the Dukes are 5-1 ... if you want to go five points higher, consider that DU is 6-0 when scoring 75 or more