Jan. 7, 2007
Box Score
ST. LOUIS, MO. -- Duquesne used a balanced offense and an opportunistic defense to rally from a 14-point first half deficit and defeat Saint Louis 73-63 at Scottrade Center on Saturday.
The Dukes (5-8) turned 17 Saint Louis turnovers into 28 points in evening their Atlantic 10 record at 1-1. Saint Louis (10-5), which shot just 34.8 percent in the second half, dropped to 0-2 in conference play.
Aaron Jackson led four Duquesne players with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Reggie Jackson added a season-high 13 points and seven steals and Kieron Achara and Scott Grote scored 12 and 11 points respectively.
Tommie Liddell led Saint Louis with 28 points.
"We really picked it up defensively," said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart. "Any time you hold a team to 34 percent shooting in the second half, you have a chance. We were really focused coming into this game, even when we were down in the first half our guys stayed tough and kept working."
Saint Louis took a 14-point lead on a Liddell 3-pointer with 5:57 left in the half. Duquesne answered with a 10-0 run, holding SLU scoreless for a 4:16 span, in making the score 34-30. Liddell, who had 18 points in the first half, scored six in the final 1:41 to give the Billikens a 38-33 lead at the break.
The Dukes hit five of their first six shots in the second half to tie the game at 46-46 on an Achara layup with 15:25 to go. Saint Louis managed to hold the lead until Gary Tucker hit a pair of free throws to put Duquesne up 55-53 with 5:16 to go.
DU never trailed the rest of the way, pulling away with a pressing defense that turned 12 SLU second-half turnovers into 22 points.
"We had a lot more pop in our step," said Everhart referring to DU's 48-point loss at Saint Joseph's on Wednesday. "We had ball pressure and good help defensively. We were able to nullify an inside game that had been pretty tough."
Duquesne shot 52.3 percent and turned it over just 12 times. The Dukes' 12 steals were a season high and SLU's 63 points were an opponent low. Saint Louis finished the game at 45.1 percent with 17 turnovers.
DU finished the game with a 28-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Dukes played without leading scorer (17.6 ppg.) and rebounder (5.6 rpg.) Robert Mitchell who watched the game from the bench in street clothes. "Robert hasn't' been accountable to himself and his teammates in practice," said Everhart in explaining Mitchell's status.
Duquesne, which has played eight of its past nine games on the road, returns to Pittsburgh for the Atlantic 10 home opener versus La Salle on Wednesday, Jan. 10. The La Salle game is the first of five of six at home for the Dukes.
