Jan. 4, 2016
QUICK NOTES
• Duquesne (10-4, 0-1) heads to North Carolina to face Davidson (8-4, 0-1) in a matchup of the Atlantic 10's two top scoring teams on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7:00 p.m. The game will be televised in the Davidson viewing area by WMYT, MyNetwork. This will be the first of two meetings between the Dukes and Wildcats.
• The Dukes were picked to finish 11th in the A-10 preseason poll, while Davidson, last year's regular season champion, was tabbed third. Duquesne is the only A-10 team that will be facing the top five teams in the league's preseason poll at least once on the road.
• Duquesne is 1-1 on the road this season, with a win at Saint Francis U (67-65) at Johnstown, Pa. on Dec. 12 and a loss at Georgia Tech (67-73) on Dec. 29.
• This will be Duquesne's third game without senior forward Jeremiah Jones (season-ending knee injury vs. Robert Morris on Dec. 19). Jones had played in every game of his DU career (103) with 95 starts. The Dukes were without second-leading scorer Micah Mason (ankle) for the Dayton game. His status for the Davidson game is to be determined.
NEXT UP: Duquesne heads to Washington, D.C. to face George Washington at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9 on ASN.
THE SERIES
Series Record: Davidson leads 2-0
At Pittsburgh: Davidson leads 1-0
At Davidson, N.C.: Davidson leads 1-0
A-10 Regular Season: Davidson leads 2-0
• This is the third meeting between Duquesne and second-year Atlantic 10 member Davidson ... the Wildcats swept last year's home-and-home series (95-69 at Belk Arena and 107-78 at Palumbo Center).
• Davidson, the defending Atlantic 10 regular season champion, was picked to finish 3rd in the A-10 preseason poll.
• Davidson (82.0 ppg.) and Duquesne (79.9 ppg.) enter Wednesday's game as to two top scoring teams in the Atlantic 10. The Wildcats and Dukes also rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference in 3-pointers made per game (9.8 for Davidson and 9.4 for Duquesne).
• The Dukes and Wildcats share one common opponent ... Pitt defeated DU 96-75 at CONSOL Energy Center on Dec. 4 and also defeated Davidson, 94-69 at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 20.
ON THE WILDCATS
Davidson, which is 7-0 at home, dropped its A-10 opener at St. Bonaventure, 97-85, on Saturday ... the Wildcats have won 27 of their last 28 home games at Belk Arena dating back to the 2013-14 season ... four `Cats are averaging in double figures led by Jack Gibbs at 24.0 ppg. ... Gibbs, who began the week ranked fifth nationally in scoring (24.0 ppg.), has scored 35 or more four times, including over 40 twice ... Gibbs (29-82, .354) and backcourtmate Brian Sullivan (39-94, .415) have combined for 68 3-pointers ... Sullivan, who missed the St. Bonaventure game (concussion protocol), is averaging 14.8 ppg. ... Gibbs (1st Team) and Sullivan (2nd Team) were both named preseason All-A-10 ... the Wildcats are ranked 8th nationally in fewest turnovers per game (10.0) ... Davidson is coached by Bob McKillop who is in his 27th season (all with the Wildcats) ... the sixth-longest tenured coach in the country, McKillop earned his 500th win on Nov. 28 (over Denison) ... he has led Davidson to 20 or more wins in 22 of his first 26 seasons.
LEFTOVERS FROM DAYTON
Leftovers from Duquesne's 66-58 loss to Dayton on Jan. 2 at Palumbo Center: DU was held to season lows in points (58), field goals (17), field goal pct. (.327), and assists (8) and also set Jim Ferry Era lows for 3-pointers made (2) and attempted (12) ... despite the offensive lows, the Dukes trailed by four with the ball with under four minutes left ... DU limited Dayton to 3-of-25 from 3-point and outrebounded the Flyers 44-39 ... UD's .365 field goal percentage was the second-lowest by a DU opponent this season ... the Dukes also went 22-of-28 from the foul line ... Duquesne, which lost starting forward Jeremiah Jones for the season (ACL) on Dec. 19 vs. Robert Morris, was without second-leading scorer and leading assist man Micah Mason, who was sidelined with an injured ankle (suffered late in the first half at Georgia Tech) ... freshman Josh Steel, who played a total of 84 minutes in Duquesne's first 13 games, logged 37 minutes in his first career start ... Steel finished with 7 points (2-of-4 from 3-point) and 3 assists ... Eric James, who was making his second career start in place of Jones, grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds ... starting point guard Derrick Colter led the Dukes with 14 points, despite 2-of-12 shooting (0-of-4 from 3-point) ... it was his second consecutive game without a 3-pointer (he was 0-of-5 at Georgia Tech) ... Colter, who has started every game in his DU career (105), has never gone more that two consecutive games without a 3-pointer ... Colter went 10-of-11 from the line against the Flyers ... center Darius Lewis went 5-of-7 from the field in scoring 12 points ... it was his highest scoring game since he had a career-high 15 in the opener vs. Seton Hill ... TySean Powell added 8 points and 6 points in 16 minutes off the bench.
TRENDING
• Duquesne is the only A-10 team that will be facing the top five teams in the league's preseason poll at least once on the road.
• Duquesne is coming off a season-low 58 point outing vs. Dayton. DU is averaging 62.5 points in its past two games. On the flipside, the Dukes have held their past three opponents to combined .383 shooting.
• DU is without injured co-captain Jeremiah Jones (9.6, 3.8) who suffered a torn ACL (right knee) in the Dec. 19 win over Robert Morris. Jones had played in every game in his DU career (103) with 84-straight starts.
• Micah Mason (1,032 points), who has played in 99 career g., missed the Dayton game due to an ankle injury. The miss snapped a streak of 65 straight starts for DU's second-leading scorer (16.1 ppg.). His status for Davidson is TBD.
• Sophomore Eric James is averaging 10.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in his past three games.
• The Dukes have outrebounded 10 of 14 opponents and are 9-1 in those games.
• DU (10-2) tied the school record for pre-New Year's Day wins set in 1953-54 (10-0).
