Jan. 14, 2007
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Fordham shot a Palumbo Center record 69 percent in defeating Duquesne 71-59 on Sunday at Pittsburgh. Marcus Stout went 10-of-12 from the field and hit all six of his 3-point attempts in leading the Rams (9-7, 2-2) with 26 points. Bryant Dunston and Sebastian Greene added 14 and 13 respectively for Fordham, which broke the previous Palumbo Center field goal percentage mark of 66.7 percent set by Ohio on January 7, 2004.
Robert Mitchell scored 20 of his team-high 23 in the second half for the Dukes (5-10, 1-3). Kieron Achara added 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds for DU. Gary Tucker was the only other Duquesne player in double figures with 10.
"We didn't guard very well, plus they made some difficult shots," said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart. Fordham, which went 14-of-19 in the first half, hit 11of its first 12 field goal attempts in jumping out to a 27-16 lead. The Rams did not miss until Achara blocked a Greene layup attempt just over nine minutes into the game.
Stout, who scored 18 in 16 first half minutes, tallied the Rams' final five points to give Fordham a 36-23 lead at intermission.
In the second half, Dunston, who was held to just one field goal attempt in the first half, hit 6-of-7 shots. His jumper with 12:19 left gave the Rams a 50-35 lead. Duquesne mounted an 8-2 run featuring 3-pointers by Jason Duty and Mitchell to cut the lead to nine with 11:01 to go.
The Dukes continued to chip away and pulled within six on a pair of Gary Tucker free throws with 7:25 left. On its next four possessions, DU missed a pair of shots and turned it over twice as Fordham put together and 8-0 run with Stout scoring the last six on a pair of 3-pointers late in the shot clock to push the Fordham lead to 64-50.
The closest the Dukes would get the rest of the way was within 12 in the game's closing seconds.
"We had some bad turnovers at inopportune times," said Everhart. "We finally get back in the game and we make a couple silly turnovers and Stout hit a pair of big three's. We didn't have very good distribution today."
Duquesne shot 54.5 percent in outscoring the Rams 36-35 in the second half, but it was too little too late to erase Fordham's hot start.
Fordham went 8-of-10 from the 3-point arc, while the Dukes struggled for the second consecutive game, hitting just 3-of-14 3-point attempts. DU, which went 3-of-24 from the arc in a 79-63 loss to La Salle on Wednesday, missed its first nine 3-point attempts before Mitchell converted with 14:57 left in the game.
"Right now our team has lost a little confidence," said Everhart. "One of the toughest things as a coach is you have to stay positive and keep working. We have better shooters than what we've been showing."
Duquesne is off until January 21 when they travel to Amherst, Mass. to face Massachusetts.
