March 13, 2009

Complete Game Notes

2008-09 ATLANTIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP

#7 DUQUESNE (20-11) vs. #3 DAYTON (26-6)
Fri., Mar. 13, 2009 - Boardwalk Hall - Atlantic City, N.J. - 9:00 p.m. (EST)

TELEVISION: CBS College Sports Regional with Tom McCarthy & Steve Wolf
** game will be carried locally by PCNC **
DUQUESNE RADIO: KQV-AM (1410) with Ray Goss & George Von Benko
INTERNET BROADCAST: www.redzonemedia.com or www.GoDuquesne.com
LIVE STATS/VIDEO: www.Atlantic10.org ("men's basketball championship" link)

SEMIFINAL: Duquesne has advanced to the semifinal by virtue of a 91-81win over No. 7 seed Massachusetts on Wednesday followed by a 78-74 upset of No. 2 Rhode Island last night. This is the Dukes' first semifinal appearance since 1994. The Dukes have posted back-to-back victories in the Atlantic 10 Tournament for the first time since 1985, when Jim Satalin's Dukes - playing as a #8 seed - defeated #9 Penn State (78-64) and #1 West Virginia (70-66) before losing to #4 Rutgers (78-53) in the semifinal at Piscataway, N.J. DU is attempting to advance to the A-10 Championship final for the first time since 1981.

20 WINS: DU's 78-74 win over Rhode Island yesterday secured the Dukes' first 20-win season since 1981 (20-10) and second since 1972 (20-5). The last Duquesne team to win 21 games was the 1971 21-4 NCAA squad.

SOME BIG Ws: The Dukes, who own a victory over then-No. 9 (AP) Xavier (72-68), have also defeated a pair of NCAA Tournament teams on the road in Radford (94-75) and Robert Morris (88-62). DU never trailed in handing RMU its worst loss of the season and led Radford from the 19:31 mark of the first half. DU only trailed Xavier at 2-0 and led from the 17:43 mark on. The Dukes also own a win over MAC No. 1 seed Bowling Green.

DUQUESNE LATELY: The Dukes snapped an eight-game second round losing streak with yesterday's 78-74 win over Rhode Island ... this is the first time DU has won back-to-back A-10 Tournament games since 1985 ... DU's 20 wins are its most since the 1981 NIT team went 20-10 ... the win over URI leaves Richmond as the lone A-10 third-year DU coach Ron Everhart has yet to defeat ... senior point guard Aaron Jackson, who has never missed a game in his Duquesne career, will be taking the floor for his 118th consecutive game ... only Tony Petrarca (120 games from 1987-91) has played in more games at Duquesne ... Jackson, who has 11 assists in two tournament games (179 total), has broken the school single-season record of 178 set by Norm Nixon in 1977 ... 6-7 soph. F Damian Saunders, who began the week ranked among the nation's top 30 in steals (24th at 2.3/g.) and blocks (26th at 2.3/g.) ... needs three steals to break the DU single-season record of 70 set by Clayton Adams in 1988 ... Saunders' 74 blocks rank second in Duquesne's all-time list ... DU has set a new school record for 3-point makes (260) and attempts (742) breaking the record for both set in 2007 (239-of-722) ... DU's 525 assists are 14 shy of the school record of 539 set last year.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE: Duquesne, which has posted its first 20-win season since 1981, was 3-24 with an RPI of 308 the year before Ron Everhart's arrival on the Bluff. In his first season, Everhart took a team that had two returning players (one of whom was senior Aaron Jackson) and was rocked by a preseason campus shooting to a 10-19 record including five consecutive A-10 regular season wins. Last year, he led the Dukes to the school's first winning record since 1994 at 17-13 as DU's RPI improved to 130. This year, despite losing his top five scorers from the 17-win team, Everhart has guided a team with one scholarship upperclassman (Jackson) and eight freshmen (one of whom was lost for the season due to December knee surgery) to 20 wins and an 85 RPI through games of March 11.

RHODY LEFTOVERS
• FIRST BACK-TO-BACK WINS SINCE `85: This is the first time Duquesne has won two A-10 Championship games since 1985 when the No. 8 Dukes defeated No. 9 Penn State and No. 1 West Virginia before losing to No. 4 Rutgers in the semifinal at Piscataway, N.J.
• FIRST SEMIFINAL SINCE `94: The victory put the Dukes in the semifinal for the first time since 1994. In `94 the Dukes, who had to win just one game to reach the semifinal lost in that round to eventual tournament champion top-seeded UMass.
• ONE TO GO: The win left Richmond as the lone Atlantic 10 team Duquesne has yet to defeat in three seasons under Ron Everhart.
• BILL'S BIG NIGHT: Sophomore G/F Bill Clark posted his third career double-double (second this season) with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the win ... six of Clark's boards came at the offensive end ... Clark added four assists and two steals in 40 minutes.
• MAKING THE MOST OF IT: Sophomore forward Damian Saunders was an economical 9-of-11 from the field in scoring a team-high 20 vs. the Rams ... Saunders blocked three shots, giving him eight in two tournament games ... his two-game 4.0 bpg. average ranks as the fifth-best in Championship history (minimum 2 g.).
• TIGHT ONE: There were 13 ties and seven lead changes before Clark put the Dukes up for good with a 3-pointer with 3:31 left.


MINUTE MEN: DU's three leading scorers in the URI game, Damian Saunders (20 pts.), Bill Clark (19 pts.) and Aaron Jackson (17 pts.), logged 40, 40 and 38 minutes respectively in the uptempo game. Jackson is averaging 38.0 minutes, Clark 37.5 and Saunders 37.0 through two tournament games.

THE LAST MEETING WITH DAYTON: Notes from DU's 74-61 loss at Dayton last Saturday ... Duquesne, the preseason pick to finish 12th in the A-10, could have secured a fourth seed and Atlantic 10 Championship bye with a win ... there were eight ties and four lead changes before UD closed out the first half with a 19-6 run over the final 4:24 of the first half ... the run, fueled by four of Luke Fabrizius' career-high five 3-pointers (all in the first half), was the difference in the game as both teams scored 25 in the second half ... UD's 25 was a Duquesne opponent season low for second half points ... Duquesne shot just .200 (5-of-25) from the 3-point arc ... Dayton was .500 from the field and 9-of-21 (.429) from 3-point ... Aaron Jackson had 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals in 40 minutes ... B.J. Monteiro came off the bench to score a career high 12 in a career best 24 minutes ... Bill Clark, who hit 5-of-6 from the arc in the previous game (a 70-68 win over Saint Louis), was 2-of-9 from 3-point at Dayton ... the two teams tied in points in the paint (32) and points off turnovers (13) ... DU had two more second chance points (14-12) and two more fast break points (16-14) ... Dayton's lead reached 23 with just over two minutes left as the Dukes finished the game with a 10-0 run.

ECLIPSING A LEGEND: With his four assists in yesterday's win over Rhode Island Aaron Jackson passed Duquesne great Norm Nixon to become DU's single-season assist leader. Jackson passed Nixon when he fed Bill Clark for a 3-pointer with 3:31 left. Clark's basket put the Dukes ahead to stay. Jackson enters the Dayton game with 179 assists in 31 games. Nixon, who led Duquesne to the Atlantic 10's first title in 1977 (when it was still the Eastern 8) and went on to have a 10-year NBA career, passed out 178 assists in 30 games in 1977.

JACKSON MOVIN' ON UP: Aaron Jackson moved from 19th to 17th on DU's all-time scoring list with his 18 points vs. URI yesterday. Jackson enters the Dayton game needing two points to pass Jarrett Durham (1,339 from 1969-71) and move into the 16th spot. With 18 points he can pass Brian Shanahan (1,355 from 1986-89) and become DU's 15th all-time leading scorer. Jackson has 1,338 points in 117 games.

IRON MAN: Aaron Jackson, who has never missed a game in his DU career, will be taking the floor for the 118th time when the Dukes take on Dayton. It will be the second-most games ever by a Duquesne player trailing only Tony Petrarca's 120 from 1987-91.

DOUBLING HIS FUN: Jackson, who has scored in double digits in Duquesne's past 22 games, scored 16 of DU's final 20 points in a 73-71 loss to URI on Mar. 1 and totaled the Dukes' final 11 tallies in DU's next game, a 70-68 come-from-behind win over Saint Louis.

NUMBERS: In 90 games under Ron Everhart, the Dukes are 46-25 when scoring 70 or more, including an 20-5 mark this season (two of the five losses have come in overtime) ... on the other hand, when scoring under 70 Everhart's Dukes are 1-18 (0-6 this year) ... Duquesne is 15-5 when leading at the half and 16-1 when leading with 5:00 to go ... the Dukes are 10-3 when outrebounding opponents.


TOURNAMENT NUMBERS
• Duquesne's largest deficit in its first two Championship games is two points (three times vs. UMass and three times vs. Rhode Island).
• The Dukes are averaging 17.5 assists and 84.5 points per game.
• Six players are averaging in double digits: Aaron Jackson (17.5), Bill Clark (17.5), Damian Saunders (14.5), Melquan Bolding (12.5), Eric Evans (11.5) and Jason Duty (10.0).
• Duquesne has made 11 and 10 3-pointers in its two games. The Dukes are shooting .438 from the arc (21-of-48) at the Championship.
• Six different players have hit at least two 3-pointers led by Jackson and Duty with five each.
• Three players are shooting better than 50.0 percent from the 3-point arc: Duty is 5-of-8 (.625), Bolding is 3-of-5 (.600) and Saunders is 3-of-6 (.500).
• Opponents are shooting .281 from the 3-point arc (16-of-57).
• The Dukes are shooting .519 from the field.
• DU is outscoring opponents 90-79 in the second half.
• Damian Saunders, who was 3-of-13 with eight total points in his last two games prior to the A-10 Championship is 13-of-19 from the field (.684) and averaging 14.5 ppg.
• Jason Duty, who was 1-of-10 from the 3-point arc in three games prior to the Championship, is 5-of-8 from the arc in two games at Atlantic City.
• Bill Clark, who entered the Championship shooting 66.0 percent from the foul line, is 16-of-20 (80.0%) from the charity stripe.
• The Dukes have made five more free throws (36-of-54) than their opponents have attempted (19-of-31).