Feb. 13, 2011

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PITTSBURGH - Tu Holloway scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to lead Xavier to a 71-63 win over Duquesne in front of a sellout crowd of 10,509 at CONSOL Energy Center.

Dante Jackson hit four 3-pointers in adding 19 for the Musketeers (18-6, 9-1) who took over undisputed first place in the Atlantic 10 with the win.

B.J. Monteiro had 17 for Duquesne (16-7, 8-2) which saw its school record-tying Atlantic 10 home win streak stopped at eight.

Bill Clark posted his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds for DU. Damian Saunders, who was limited to 24 minutes due to foul trouble, added 11 points.

Duquesne, which rallied from a 10-point deficit to take a 37-36 lead at the half, upped the lead to 49-43 on a T.J. McConnell free throw with 12:06 to go.

It was then that the Musketeers went on a 20-4 run fueled by 10 points from Holloway. The 6-0 junior started the run with a 3-pointer. His back-to-back layups put Xavier up four and another 3-pointer made it 62-53 with 5:14 to go.

Duquesne, which shot 36.2 percent for the game, made just 7-of-27 shots (25.9%) in the second half.

"I thought we had the game right where we needed to have it midway through the second half," said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart. "We just stopped scoring."

"We stopped being aggressive," said Clark. "Once you get a lead like that you have to keep pushing, and we didn't."

Kenny Frease had 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds and Jamel McLean added 10 points and nine boards for the Musketeers who outrebounded the Dukes 41-32.

Duquesne forced 20 Xavier turnovers, but was only able to turn them into 10 points. The Dukes struggled mightily from the foul line, converting just 13-of-27 attempts.

Xavier, which shot 48.8 percent for the game, made 22-of-30 free throws (73.3%).

"We did not convert on the turnovers we got," said Everhart. "It was a tough day for us in that regard."

Duquesne trailed 25-15 at the second media timeout before Saunders started a 6-0 run with a dunk followed by fast break layups from Clark and Monteiro to cut the lead to four at the 6:35 mark.

Saunders went to the bench eight seconds later with his third foul before Clark and Monteiro hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 29-27.

Monteiro tied it at 33-33 on a free throw with 1:29 left before Sean Johnson gave the Dukes the lead on a putback of his own miss at the 59 second mark. DU upped the lead to 37-33 before Frease converted a three-point play to make it 37-36 at the half.

Monteiro (14 points) and Clark (eight points) combined for 22 of the Dukes' 37 first-half points.

Duquesne hits the road for its next two, beginning with Wednesday's game at Massachusetts (game time is 7:00 p.m.). DU is at Dayton on Saturday, Feb. 19 (12:00 p.m. in a CBS College Sports syndicated television game).

NOTES

• The loss snapped DU's home conference win streak at a school record-tying eight ... the mark was set in 1990-91 ... DU's previous home conference loss was on Feb. 11, 2010 to UMass (84-80 in overtime) at the Palumbo Center.

• Duquesne is now 15-2 in afternoon games (pre-6:00 tip) over the past two seasons (9-1 in 2010 and 6-1 this year).

• The sellout crowd of 10,509 was the largest for a Duquesne home game - against an opponent other than cross-town rival Pitt - since 12,222 turned out to see DU vs. No. 8 (AP) Maryland on Feb. 21, 1973 at the then-Civic Arena.

• With his 11 points, Damian Saunders (1,402 pts.) passed Courtney Wallace (1,394 from 1998-01) to move into 15th on DU's all-time scoring list ... Saunders needs 10 points to pass No. 14 Mike James (1,411 from 1995-98).

• Bill Clark reached the 1,500-point mark with a free throw at the 1:47 mark of the first half ... Clark ranks 10th on DU's all-time scoring list with 1,506 points ... he needs 28 to pass No. 9 Bruce Atkins (1,533 from 1979-82).