Box Score Jan. 17, 2015
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PITTSBURGH - Melvin Johnson hit a big 3-pointer with under a minute left to quell a Duquesne comeback and give No. 17 (AP) VCU a hard-fought 70-64 win over the Dukes at CONSOL Energy Center.
Duquesne, which trailed by 14 with 15 minutes left, cut the lead to two and had the ball with under two minutes left, but could get no closer as the Rams extended their winning streak to 10.
JeQuan Lewis and Johnson led VCU - which was without injured leading scorer Treveon Graham - with 16 and 14 points respectively.
Derrick Colter and Dominique McKoy led Duquesne with 14 and 12 points. L.G. Gill added 11 off the bench.
Duquesne, which trailed by 14 at the half, hit four 3-pointers - including three by Micah Mason - in the first five minutes of the second half, but couldn't get closer than nine as the Rams answered each 3-pointer with a score.
VCU matched its largest lead at 52-38 on a Justin Tillman layup with 15:22 left.
The Dukes were down 54-41 whcn McKoy ignited a 11-2 run with a layup. McKoy, who scored six of the 11 during the run, followed a Gill 3-pointer with a layup off a pass from Colter forcing a VCU timeout with 10:33 to go.
Darius Lewis, who had eight points and six rebounds, cut it to four on a jumper with 9:45 left.
Johnson ended the run with a 3-pointer from the corner that made it 59-52.
The Dukes hung in and cut it to three on a pair of Colter free throws with just under five minutes left and made it 64-62 on a dunk by Lewis with 2:25 to go.
Duquesne had the ball down two with under two minutes left, but was unable to get of a shot, turning it over with two seconds left on the shot clock and 1:25 on the game clock.
Johnson then buried his fourth and final 3-pointer from the left wing with a minute left to make it 67-62.
Gill missed a 3-point attempt and Lewis couldn't convert a put back with 40 seconds left.
VCU's Mo Alie-Cox converted a pair of free throws with 38 seconds left to put the game out of reach.
Duquesne outshot (.431 to .390) and outrebounded (44-28) the Rams. The difference was at the 3-point arc where VCU hit 12-of-30 and DU made good on 6-of-21, including 5-of-13 in the second half.
VCU hit eight 3-pointers in building a 40-26 halftime lead.
A Lewis 3-pointer, VCU's seventh, made it 30-22, before Johnson followed with another three to make it an 11-point game with 2:03 left.
Briante Weber completed a 20-7 half-ending run - during which Duquesne turned it over five times - with a pair of free throws with two seconds left that gave VCU its 14-point margin.
Duquesne returns to action against St. Bonaventure on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7:00 p.m. at Palumbo Center. The game will be streamed live nationally by CampusInsiders.com.
NOTES
• Duquesne outshot VCU .462 to .333 in the second half ... the Dukes outscored the Rams 38-30 over the final 20 minutes.
• Guard Derrick Colter hit 1-of-3 3-point attempts to bring his season percentage to .527 (39-of-74) ... Colter entered the game ranked second nationally in 3-point shooting percentage ... in addition to his team-high 14 points, Colter had five rebounds and a team-high four assists with just one turnover in 29 minutes.
• Dominique McKoy went 6-of-7 from the field in scoring 12 points ... he is 28-of-42 (.667) from the field and averaging 10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in his past five games.
• The Dukes, who finished with 13 offensive rebounds, outscored the Rams 24-14 in the paint and 16-8 in second chance points.
• Duquesne's largest lead was six at 15-9 with 12:55 left in the first half ... VCU's largest lead was 14, which it reached three times, the last coming with 15 minutes left ... there was one tie and five lead changes before a Doug Brooks gave VCU the lead for good on a 3-pointer with 10:20 left in the first half.
• Duquesne hosts St. Bonaventure at Palumbo Center on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7:00 p.m., in a game that will be streamed nationally by CampusInsiders.com.
