Jan. 12, 2011

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PITTSBURGH - Duquesne held Saint Louis to one point in the first 8:15 of the second half in pulling away for a 67-45 Atlantic 10 win at the Palumbo Center.

The victory extended DU's (10-5, 2-0) win streak to five, while Saint Louis (5-11, 0-3), which was playing without head coach Rick Majerus for the third consecutive game, dropped its sixth in a row.

The 45 points allowed were the fewest given up by Duquesne in a conference game since a 42-40 pre-shot clock era loss at George Washington on Dec. 12, 1981.

Damian Saunders posted his 30th career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Dukes. The 6-7 senior added four blocks for the fourth-consecutive game. T.J. McConnell went 8-of-12 from the field in scoring a game-high 18 points. The six-foot freshman added a game-high four assists without a turnover in 29 minutes. Sean Johnson scored 11 off the bench.

Cody Ellis was the lone Saint Louis player in double figures with 10.

Duquesne saw its four-point halftime lead balloon to 19 as Saint Louis missed its first nine shots and turned it over nine time in the first 11 minutes of the second half. In all, the Billikens went scoreless for a span of 14:01 covering both halves.

Jordair Jett's jumper in the lane with 8:45 left was SLU's first field goal of the second half. The bucket made it 45-28.

The Billikens would get no closer than 17 the rest of the way.

"We were not able to get our tempo from the start," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "It wasn't a press-and-run kind of game."

Saint Louis took the largest lead by either team in the first-half on a Mike McCall 3-pointer that made it 19-14 with 6:40 left. DU answered with a 7-0 run to take a 21-19 lead on a McConnell layup with just under four minutes left.

SLU rallied to take a four-point lead on a Kyle Cassity 3-pointer before Saunders hit a 3-pointer and McConnell added a jumper and 3-pointer to make it 29-25 Duquesne at the half. McConnell and Saunders picked up where they left off, scoring nine of DU's first 12 points of the second half.

"They are such a good defensive team that I think when our guys watched their defensive effort on film that they began to think that maybe we can get to the ball as quick and sit down and guard," said Everhart.

The Dukes, who committed a season-low seven turnovers, forced 20 Saint Louis miscues. Duquesne shot 45.1 percent and held SLU to 37 percent.

Duquesne completes a two-game homestand against No. 19 (AP)/23 (ESPN) Temple (12-3, 3-0) on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 12:00 p.m. The game will be televised by CBS College Sports regional and will air on The Comcast Network locally.

NOTES

• This is the fifth win streak of five or more games posted by Ron Everhart's Duquesne teams in his five seasons as head coach ... Everhart's teams now own five of the 11 longest win streaks posted by DU teams since 1969-70.

• The last time Duquesne began the month of January with four consecutive wins was in 1971 when the NCAA Tournament Dukes (21-4), in the midst of a 15-game win streak, went 14-0 to start the New Year (they won their final game in December, went 7-0 in January and won their first seven in February).

• This is the sixth time DU has opened conference play with back-to-back wins ... the Dukes have opened 3-0 just once (in 2008-09).

• All 10 of Duquesne's wins have come by double-digit margins.

• With his five points senior Bill Clark passed Brian Shanahan to move into the No. 16 spot on DU's all-time leading scorers' list ... Clark, who has 1,357 points, needs 26 to pass No. 15 B.B. Flenory (1,382 from 1977-80).

• DU's seven turnovers were a season low ... the previous low was nine in a double-overtime loss to George Mason.

• The Dukes are now 8-0 when Sean Johnson (11 points) scores in double digits.

• There were five ties and five lead changes in the opening 20 minutes ... Duquesne took the lead for good on a McConnell jumper with 1:25 left in the first half ... Duquesne's largest lead was 25 with 35 seconds left.