Box Score

MOREHEAD, KY - Brent Arrington scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, and DeJuan Marrero scored 10 of his 14 in the second, to lead Morehead State to an 82-72 win over Duquesne in the quarterfinal of the College Basketball Invitational at Morehead, Ky.

Senior Micah Mason scored a game-high 24 in his final game for Duquesne (17-17). Fellow senior Derrick Colter added 16 for the Dukes.

Xavier Moore had 15 for the Eagles (21-12), who will play at Ohio on Wednesday night in the CBI semifinal.

The Dukes trailed by three with 9:32 left before Marrero converted a three-point play and jumper to put Morehead State up seven. MSU took its first 10-point lead on a Marrero free throw with 7:22 remaining. Duquesne would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.

"We kept grinding, but couldn't get over that hump in the second half," said Duquesne head coach Jim Ferry.

There were five ties and six lead changes, before MSU mounted a 10-2 run capped by a buzzer-beating halfcourt shot by Arrington that made it 43-36 at the first half horn.

Duquesne got eight early points from Mason early in the second half to stay within striking distance, before Marrero's three-point play gave MSU some separation with under 10 minutes to go.

Morehead State pulled down 11 of its 15 offensive rebounds and outscored the Dukes 24-10 in the paint in the second half.

"I thought their two forwards were relentless," said Ferry. "We were rotating bodies on them. We went zone for a while to mix it up and they just got comfortable and really hurt us on the glass and got to the foul line."

Forwards Eric James and Nakye Sanders both fouled out for the Dukes.

Morehead State, which shot 44.1 percent, scored 21 points off 12 Duquesne turnovers.

Duquesne finished at 41.5 percent, including 9-of-29 from 3-point.

"We won enough games to get invited to a post-season tournament, which is good for us to re-establish winning in Duquesne basketball," said Ferry. "As a coach I'm always going to self-evaluate, so its going to take me a little while, but we do know we have really good kids here and we just need to continue to get better.

"I don't think any of us really wanted it to end. Its disappointing as a coach and as a player because you work so hard month, after month, after month and all of the sudden it comes to a screeching halt."

NOTES
• Mason went 4-of-12 from the arc to bring his school single-season record for 3-pointers in a season to 118 ... Mason finished his career 311-of-671 from the 3-point arc ... his 464 career percentage is the seventh-best mark in NCAA history ... Mason's .458 3-point percentage in his three seasons at Duquesne (271-592) broke both the Duquesne and Atlantic 10 career records ... Saint Joseph's Pat Carroll held the previous A-10 mark (294-661, .445), while Jimmy Tricco (134-334, .401) held the old DU record ... Mason finished his career with 1,431 points ... his 1,269 points at Duquesne rank 23rd all-time.

• Derrick Colter finished his career ranked seventh on DU's all-time scoring list with 1,695 points ... he finished third in career assists (526) and career games played (125) ... his 125 career starts are the most in school history.

• This was just the seventh time in the past 44 years that a Duquesne team posted 17 wins.

• The win upped Morehead State's home record to 13-2.

• Duquesne's largest lead was +1 (34-33) the last of which came with 2:16 left in the first half ... Morehead State's largest lead was +12 (82-70) with :01 left ... there were five ties and six lead changes before Lamontray Harris gave the Eagles the lead for good on a free throw with 2:15 left in the first half.