Jan. 5, 2007

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DUKES VISIT SAINT LOUIS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE `34

Duquesne (4-8, 0-1), which opened the Atlantic 10 season with an 89-41 loss at Saint Joseph's on Wednesday stays on the road to face Saint Louis (10-4, 0-1) at 8:00 (EST) on Saturday, Jan. 6 (KQV radio 1410 AM and on the internet at www.RedZoneMedia.com). The game marks Duquesne's first trip to St. Louis since a 45-53 win over the Billikens on Dec. 18, 1934.

The loss at Saint Joseph's snapped a modest two-game road winning streak for the Dukes. The road streak was the longest by a DU team since 1994. Head coach Ron Everhart, who was hospitalized from Dec. 25-29 with a gastrointestinal ailment, was back on the bench for the SJU game. This is the fifth of five consecutive road games for the Dukes. It is also the seventh-straight season Duquesne has had to open Atlantic 10 play on the road.

Saint Louis, which opened league play with a 74-69 loss at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday, is 6-1 at home with impressive wins over Houston (81-78), Missouri State (51-50) and Mississippi (59-56). The Billikens lone home loss came to then-No. 2 (AP) North Carolina (69-48 on Dec. 22). Saint Louis, which went 10-6 in its inaugural A-10 campaign last season, was picked to finish third in the conference in a preseason poll of league coaches and media. SLU returns the 2006 A-10 Rookie of the Year (6-5 G Tommie Liddell, 14.1, 7.6) and the league's Most Improved Player (6-10 C/F Ian Vouyoukas, 12.5, 9.2).

DUQUESNE LATELY

• Duquesne, which opened the season with seven scholarship players, is currently competing with nine
• The Dukes' 48-point defeat at Saint Joseph's (89-41) was the school's third-worst in A-10 play ... the 41 points tied the fourth-lowest total by a DU team in the shot clock era (since 1985-86)
• DU swept the A-10's weekly awards for the just the second time in school history this past week, when Aaron Jackson was named Player and Scott Grote Rookie of the Week following the 98-93 OT win at Boston College
• Head coach Ron Everhart is back on the bench after being hospitalized for five days (Dec. 25-29) with a gastrointestinal ailment
• A freshman has led DU in scoring in 11 of 12 games ... 6-6 freshmen Robert Mitchell & Scott Grote have led the team eight and three times respectively ... Mitchell, who was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week in each of the first three weeks the award was handed out this year, is averaging a team-best 17.6 ppg
• 6-10 junior F/C Kieron Achara, who missed all but three games last season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder, and the first six games of this season with three stress fractures in his left foot, is shooting 55.0% in five games back.

DUKES AND BILLIKENS

This is just the fifth meeting between Duquesne and second-year Atlantic 10 member Saint Louis ... it also marks DU's first trip to St. Louis since a 45-43 win on Dec. 18, 1934 ... Duquesne leads the overall series 3-1 ... Saint Louis notched its first win last year at the Palumbo Center by a 70-57 score ... the last time the two met prior to that was on Dec. 29, 1956 when the No. 5 (AP) Dukes defeated the Billikens 69-62 in the consolation game of the Bluegrass Tournament at Louisville, Ky. ... Duquesne also owns a victory at Pittsburgh in December of 1937.

QUICK NOTES

• Head coach Ron Everhart has used seven different starting lineups in the Dukes first 12 games ... the current starting five of Robert Mitchell, Scott Grote, Kieron Achara, Aaron Jackson and Reggie Jackson has started the past three games - two of which were wins ... nine different players, including three true freshmen, have started at least once ... the average age of the 13 players currently dressing for games is 20.0
• DU, which has 184 team assists and 187 turnovers on the season, has assisted on 60.1 percent of its field goals
• Duquesne is averaging 21.0 three-point attempts per game
• Freshman Robert Mitchell saw his streak of double-digit scoring games snapped at nine with his seven points at Saint Francis ... he bounced back to post a team-high 20 in the win at Boston College ... Mitchell scored in double digits in his first nine collegiate games ... he has topped the 20-point mark in six of Duquesne's past 10 games ... Wednesday' game at Saint Joseph's was his first with under 10 field goal attempts (4-of-8) while scoring 10 points ... Mitchell is 4-of-18 from the 3-point arc in DU's past four games
• Sophomore Aaron Jackson and freshman Scott Grote and have scored 10 or more seven and five times each respectively ... eight different players have scored in double digits at least once ... Mitchell (six times), Grote (twice), Aaron Jackson (once) and Kieron Achara (once) have all topped the 20-point mark
• Aaron Jackson, who led all Atlantic 10 returnees with a 1.73-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last season, has 47 assists and 26 turnovers this season ... his 1.81-to-1 ratio ranks fifth in the A-10 ... his 3.92 assists per game average ranks fourth ... Jackson, who averaged 3.2 rebounds per game last season, posted double-doubles in DU's first two games (12-11 vs. Youngstown State & 15-10 vs. UNC Asheville) ... he is third on the team with 5.1 rpg ... Jackson, who has seen more action at the point as of late, had five games with five or more rebounds in 27 outings last year, he has six in 12 games this season ... he leads the team with 32 offensive boards, including a spectacular put-back dunk at Boston College ... Jackson, the A-10 leader in minutes per game (36.0), put together one of the top stat lines by an A-10 player with 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and a career-high five steals at Saint Francis, Pa. ... he was named A-10 co-Player of the Week (Dec. 24) for his effort ... he followed that with 19 points and seven rebounds in DU's 98-93 OT win at Boston College to earn A-10 POW honors for the second consecutive week ... in the process he became just the seventh player in school history to win conference Player of the Week honors twice in one season ... the Dukes are 4-3 when Jackson scores in double figures
• 6-10 junior forward/center Kieron Achara, who was diagnosed with three stress fractures in his left foot on Nov. 10, discarded the protective boot he had worn for the previous three weeks on Dec. 2 ... the Stirling, Scotland native began practicing on Monday, Dec. 4 and made an unexpected return at Pitt two days later ... Achara scored four points and grabbed four rebounds in 18 minutes before fouling out ... it was his first game action since Dec. 3, 2005 vs. Robert Morris (he played in just three games last season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder ... he had season-ending surgery last Dec. 15) ... Achara made his first start on Dec. 9 vs. West Virginia and went 6-of-6 from the field in scoring 15 points in 25 minutes and followed that by scoring 13 of his 17 points in the second half (8-of-12 from the field) at Niagara ... he topped both outings by hitting a game-winning 3-pointer from the top of the key with 0:00 left to give the Dukes a 72-71 win at Saint Francis, Pa. on Dec. 22 ... Achara finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds ... he added 17 points in 29 minutes before fouling out at Boston College ... Achara had a streak of four consecutive double-digit scoring games snapped at Saint Joseph's (1-of-8 for three points in 27 minutes)
• Duquesne's opponents, who shot a combined 54.4 percent in the Dukes' first five games (141-of-259), have been held to 47.2 percent in the past seven games
• Scott Grote, who was 27-of-35 from the foul line in DU's first five games (that's 7.0 free throws attempted per game), went to the line once in the Dukes next five games before hitting 10-of-11 from the charity stripe, including 5-of-6 in overtime, in scoring 19 points in DU's come-from-behind 98-93 OT win at Boston College ... Grote, who is 4-of-27 from the 3-point arc in DU's past six games, made the third of the four count as he drilled a trey from the right wing with 8.2 seconds left in regulation to force an extra frame in the win at BC ... Grote, who hit 13 of his first 29 3-point attempts (44.8%) to open the season, scored 17 of his 19 at BC in the second half to earn A-10 Rookie of the Week honors on Dec. 31 ... the 3-pointer at BC was the second dramatic late-game shot for Grote, who converted a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds left to give the Dukes a 77-76 win over UNC Asheville on Nov. 18
• Gary Tucker ended a three-game scoreless streak with seven points in 13 minutes at Boston College
• Phillip Fayne has come off the bench to score 22 points in 42 minutes in DU's past three games ... he is 4-of-6 from the 3-point arc (7.3 ppg.) over that span
• Duquesne leads the Atlantic 10 - and ranks 12th nationally - in free throw percentage (.759) DU is second in the A-10 in assists (15.3 apg.) ... the Dukes are fourth in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio
• DU is 4-0 when leading at the half

SAINT JOSEPH'S LEFTOVERS

Duquesne, which went 4-of-28 from the field in the first half, finished the game shooting 25.0 percent - just shy of the school record for lowest field goal percentage of 22.9 percent (11-of-48) set at Cincinnati on Dec. 1, 2001 ... DU, which scored 12 points the first half, scored 21 in the five minute overtime in the previous game at Boston College ... the Dukes didn't score their 21st point until the 12:27 mark of the SJU game ... the 12 points were the fewest in a half since 11 in the second half of an 88-44 loss to Dayton on Jan. 12, 2002 ... DU missed 14 consecutive shots in going scoreless for a 9:18 span in the opening 20 minutes ... the 48-point margin of defeat was the most since an 89-39 loss at No. 11 (AP) Maryland on Nov. 30, 2002 ... it was also the third-worst conference loss in school history ... the 41 points were the fewest since the Maryland game and also tied the fourth-fewest points by a DU team in the shot clock era (since 1985-86) ... Duquesne is now 1-18 all time at Saint Joseph's.

DUKES ON THE ROAD

The road hasn't been kind to Duquesne in recent seasons, however first-year coach Ron Everhart's Dukes look to change that. DU won back-to-back road games for the first time since December of 1994 with a last-second 72-71 win at Saint Francis, Pa. on Dec. 22 followed by a 98-93 overtime victory at Boston College on Dec. 28. The win over Saint Francis snapped a 17-game nonconference road losing streak dating back to a 71-68 overtime win over Florida International on Dec. 28, 2002 in the title game of the FIU New Years Classic. The win over BC was the first-ever by a Duquesne team in an Atlantic Coast Conference team's arena (in 12 tries). Earlier this season, DU showed glimpses of reversing its fortune on the road in a 73-72 loss at Robert Morris (the Dukes led by seven with 2:51 left) and a 78-74 setback at Niagara (Duquesne had a potential game-tying layup roll of the rim with under five seconds left). Duquesne has won two or fewer games on the road in nine of the past 11 seasons (DU won three road games in 2004-05 & 2003-04). The last time a DU team won more than three road games was in 1994-95 (5-8). Duquesne has yet to beat just one current Atlantic 10 member (not including Charlotte and Saint Louis) on the road in league play in Richmond (0-4). The Dukes had the Spiders on the ropes two years ago, only to fall when UR scored with eight-tenths of a second left to win 72-71 at Robins Center. DU's top road victims in A-10 play are: Rhode Island (9 wins, 2003-04 last), St. Bonaventure (9 wins, 2005-06 last), George Washington (6 wins, 1999-00 last) and UMass (5 wins, 1988-89 last). The Dukes are 2-5 on the road this season.

PROGRAMMING NOTE

ESPN2 will air a story on Duquesne as part of its College GameDay show on Saturday morning ... the show airs from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (EST) ... the Duquesne spot is scheduled to air at 11:28 a.m.