Nov. 19, 2006
In an announcement unprecedented in the 31-year history of the league, the Atlantic 10 Conference named the Duquesne men's basketball team as its "Player of the Week" for the week of Nov. 11-18.
Duquesne, whose team was decimated by a campus shooting on Sept. 17, opened the season with an 81-75 win over Youngstown State on Nov. 13 and followed that with a dramatic 77-76 victory over UNC Asheville on Saturday night. The Dukes are currently competing with eight scholarship players - only one of whom is over 6-6.
Duquesne's two wins leave them two-thirds of the way toward last season's win total. The 2005-06 Dukes went 3-24 and finished with an RPI of 308.
The 2006-07 Dukes - who return just two players from last year's squad - had six double-digit scorers in the win over YSU, marking the first time a DU team had six players with 10 or more points in a game since a 94-89 win at George Washington on Jan. 8, 2000. The UNC Asheville victory, five players scored in double digits. Duquesne assisted on 36 of 54 field goals (66.7%) in the two games.
Freshman Scott Grote (20.5 ppg.) led the way with 23 points in the opener followed by 18 in the win over UNC Asheville. His two free throws with 1.3 seconds left proved to be the difference in the 77-76 win over UNCA.
Sophomore Aaron Jackson, the only one of five players injured in the shooting who is currently playing, has posted double-doubles in each of the Dukes' first two games. The six-two Jackson, who averaged 3.2 rebounds per game last season, had 12 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in the win over Youngstown State and followed that with 15 points and 10 boards against UNC Asheville. Jackson, who suffered a grazing bullet wound to the back of his left hand in the shooting, did not miss any practice time due to the injury.
Other Dukes averaging in double figures for the week were freshman Robert Mitchell (13.5 ppg.) and junior college transfers Reggie Jackson (10.5 ppg.) and Phillip Fayne (10.5 ppg.).
Duquesne, which is in the midst of a three-games-in-six-days stretch, hosts Northern Illinois on Monday night and Oakland on Wednesday.
