Dec. 17, 2008
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PITTSBURGH - Old Dominion rode red-hot second half shooting and balanced scoring to post an 86-60 win over Duquesne at the Palumbo Center.
Gerald Lee led five ODU players in double figures with 15 points. Darius James added 14. The win, Old Dominion's third over an Atlantic 10 school this season, upped the Monarchs' record to 5-3.
Freshman Eric Evans led the Dukes (5-4) - who have now dropped four of five - with a career-high 18 points. Aaron Jackson added eight points, seven rebounds and seven assists for DU.
Old Dominion shot 70.8 percent and committed just a pair of turnovers in outscoring the Dukes 44-24 in the second half.
There were three ties and four lead changes in the first half that ended with Old Dominion up 42-36. DU hit three early 3-pointers - including two by Jason Duty - to jump out to a 13-4 lead only to see ODU answer with a 9-0 run to tie the game on a Kent Bazemore layup. Old Dominion then went on a 12-2 run to build a 39-31 lead on a Ben Finney 3-pointer at the 2:12 mark.
Old Dominion hit eight of its first 10 shots of the second half to take a 63-47 lead. Duquesne was scoreless for nearly five minutes as the Monarchs put together an 11-0 run to take a 57-44 lead with 13:31 to go. Bill Clark broke the DU drought with a 3-pointer a minute later.
Old Dominion didn't let up, building its lead to over 20 with four minutes left.
"We just didn't compete," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "This is the first time since I've been coaching here that our guys just didn't compete. We started out fine, then around the 10 minute mark of the first half it looked like we were running in mud."
ODU enjoyed a 24-8 advantage in fast break points and also outscored the Dukes 21-6 in points off turnovers.
Old Dominion shot a Duquesne opponent-high 56.9 percent.
"We've guarded better than that," said Everhart, "and we will guard better than that."
Duquesne continues a stretch of three games in six days when it hosts Rice Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The Dukes conclude the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule against North Carolina Central on Monday, Dec. 22 at 7:00 p.m.
NOTES
• The loss was Duquesne's worst at home since a 31-point setback to West Virginia (85-54) on Dec. 9, 2007.
• Old Dominion is now 3-0 against Atlantic 10 schools with wins at Charlotte (69-68) and at home over Richmond (65-62).
• Eric Evans, who went 8-of-11 from the field, eclipsed his previous career high of 16 set at Saint Francis, Pa. on Nov. 20 ... it was his third double-digit scoring game of the season.
• This was the first single digit scoring game for Damian Saunders who finished with nine points and nine boards.
