Feb. 16, 2010

It might seem silly to talk defense in the wake of a game in which Duquesne trailed by 14 points in the first half, ultimately surrendered 82 and wound up scoring 103.

But Damian Saunders' effort over the last two games demands we go there.

Saunders may only be 12-for-30 from the floor over the past two games but you'd never know the shot has been a little off from the way he's embraced his responsibilities at the other end of the floor.

Head coach Ron Everhart was quick to recognize those following Sunday's victory over La Salle.

There may be no one on the planet who enjoys watching his team hit triple figures more.

But Everhart is also a big fan of winning defense.

"I thought Damian was phenomenal for us defensively," Everhart said. "He was all over the place. He was blocking shots. He was tipping passes. He was tremendous. "That defensive effort was as good as any I've ever seen. It was unbelievable."

It's what Saunders does.

While in the process of shooting 6-for-17 in an overtime loss to UMass on Feb. 11 Saunders managed to get called for goaltending by chasing what should have been an uncontested lay-up all the way to the rim. He also temporarily re-arranged the floor seats by diving out of bounds for a loose ball.

While shooting 6-for-13 against La Salle Saunders managed to start one fast break after another in the second half with a steal, a deflection or a defensive rebound. When he wasn't doing that he was tirelessly setting screens.

Defense was also apparent in the way Duquesne contained La Salle guard Rodney Green. It might seem silly to suggest a player who scored 27 points, as Green did, was contained.

But from Everhart's perspective a second-half defensive adjustment in the wake of the loss of guard Eric Evans to injury made a subtle but significant difference.

"My biggest concern was how are we going to deal with Green?" Everhart said. "The one thing we talked about at halftime was, when he puts the ball on the floor and he drives it or whatever, if he scores he scores. Let's challenge every shot, but don't let him pass it. Take away all of his passing angles and don't let him pass the ball.

"If he gets no assists maybe he'll miss a lay-up or two here and there where we can get it off the board and get in the transition game. I though if we could limit his ability to get (Devon) White and (Aaric) Murray heavily involved then maybe we'd have a shot there to contain the game."

The theory wasn't so much to concede Green field goals as it was "don't double-help and let him dish it off to a big guy for a dunk.

"Let's guard him," Everhart said. "You have responsibility Jason (Duty), Melquan (Bolding), Sean (Johnson). I thought Melquan did a tremendous job on him.

"With Green we've tried to do that every time we've ever played him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I thought (Sunday afternoon) we did a better job of keeping him on the perimeter and making him work a little harder for baskets."

Green had 18 of his 27 after halftime, but the Explores scored just 17 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half while Duquesne was breaking open a 49-49 halftime tie and building a 76-66 lead.

"He's an NBA guard," Everhart said of Green. "He's hard to deal with.

"The six turnovers he had were big because on the majority of those turnovers we got easy (baskets) on our end."