Nov. 27, 2010

Box Score | Photo Gallery

PITTSBURGH - Bill Clark led six Duquesne players in double figures with 18 points and Damian Saunders added a season-high 17 as Duquesne cruised to a 101-69 win over the University of Maryland, Baltimore County at the Palumbo Center.

Duquesne, which assisted on 22 of 30 field goals shot .556 and held UMBC to .364 in upping its home win streak to five games.

Sean Johnson and B.J. Monteiro had 12 points and Mike Talley and Joel Wright had 11 each for the Dukes who moved to 3-1.

Chris De La Rosa and Brian Neller led UMBC (0-5) with 14 points each.

"I thought we played well, played together," said head coach Ron Everhart. "I take my hat off to Bill Clark. He's been a great leader. I think this team is more together now than it was at any point last season."

Duquesne's first six field goals came from six players as the Dukes jumped out to a 17-4 lead. DU gained control early by forcing nine turnovers in the first eight minutes.

UMBC cut it to eight on a De La Rosa layup at the 6:47 mark before Duquesne answered with a 14-5 run fueled by a Saunders dunk and back-to-back 3-pointers by Johnson.

DU led 48-32 at the half as nine players combined for the Dukes' 15 field goals.

UMBC cut it to 10 on a Jamar Wertz 3-pointer just over three minutes into the second half before Saunders scored on a layup and Clark hit a 3-pointer to build a 15-point cushion.

Duquesne maintained at least a 20 point lead over the final 6:22. Jerry Jones' jumper with five seconds left put the Dukes over the century mark for the second time in four games.

Clark led the Dukes with seven rebounds to go along with four assists. T.J. McConnell added five assists, six rebounds and two steals.

"We're sharing the ball and getting a lot of guys minutes," said Everhart. "We're trying to create some depth. I like our energy level, but I don't know if we're playing with enough of a sense of urgency yet. We have a tough stretch coming up beginning with Pitt on Wednesday all the way through West Virginia on the 12th. We have to go to Penn State and Green Bay in between the two. There's not an easy one in there."

Duquesne returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 1 against No. 5 (AP) Pittsburgh (7-0) in the first basketball game at the city of Pittsburgh's CONSOL Energy Center.

NOTES

• Ten of the 11 players who played scored and 10 of 11 had an assist ... six players combined for 11 Duquesne 3-pointers led by Talley who went 3-of-3 from the arc ... 10 players played double-digit minutes led by Damian Saunders with 28.

• Saunders had two blocks and a steal in 28 minutes ... he is now seven blocks shy of breaking the Duquesne career record of 229 set by Derrick Alston from 1991-94 ... his 207 steals are 12 short of breaking the school mark of 218 set by Kenya Hunter from 1993-96.

• With his 17 points, Saunders moved into the 24th spot on DU's all-time leading scorers' list with 1,152 career points ... he is four points behind No. 23 Lionel Billingy ... Clark is 22nd with 1,179 points ... Clark trails No. 21 Tony Petrarca (1,213) by 34.

• The freshman backcourt of Mike Talley and T.J. McConnell started for the second consecutive game.

• The Dukes have had at least five double-digit scorers in all three wins.