ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. -
Marcus Weathers scored 14 of his career-high 21 points in the second half and
Sincere Carry added 16 points to help 10-0 Duquesne to the program's best start since 1953-54 with an 86-77 win over win over Austin Peay in the first round of the St. Pete Shootout at Eckerd College's McArthur Center in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Dukes, who entered the afternoon as one of four undefeated teams in NCAA Division I, went 30-of-34 from the foul line in bringing their neutral-site win streak to five - second only to Virginia's nation-leading eight game streak.
Tavian Dunn-Martin scored 13 points,
Maceo Austin had 12 and
Baylee Steele added 11 of the bench for the Dukes who shot 51 percent.
Carry scored 14 in a first half that ended with the Dukes up 45-36.
DU got a three-point play from Weathers, followed by a 3-pointer from Austin to go up 51-36 just over one minute into the second half.
APSU got a pair of 3-pointers from Jordyn Adams to cut the lead to 53-47, before Weathers ended the 8-0 Govs run with a putback to make it 55-47.
The Dukes missed seven shots in a row as Austin Peay scored seven straight to make it 63-58 with just over seven minutes left.
Weathers then hit back-to-back buckets to give DU a 67-58 lead.
APSU rallied to cut it to four on a 3-pointer, before Austin answered with a three to make it 70-63.
Carry found Weathers for a dunk to give Duquesne a 74-67 lead with just under three minutes to go, and Weathers converted a three-point play followed by a pair of Carry free throws to make it 79-71.
Austin hit four free throws down the stretch to seal it.
Duquesne finishes the two-game St. Pete Shootout tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. vs. UAB before breaking for Christmas.
NOTES
- Duquesne is off to its best start since the 1953-54 team opened a school-record 22-0. Sid Dambrot, the father of DU head coach Keith Dambrot, was a guard on the '54 team which reached No. 1 in the AP poll in February of that season.
- Duquesne, which received a vote in the Associated Press Top 25 for the second consecutive week, began the day as one of four undefeated teams in NCAA Division I.
- The 10-game win streak is Duquesne's longest since Ron Everhart's 2010-11 Dukes reeled off 11 in a row from Dec. 31 through Feb. 2.
- This was Duquesne's fifth neutral-site win (DU went 3-0 in winning the Junkanoo Jam Championship in Bimini, Bahamas Nov. 21-24 and defeated Radford in Akron, Ohio). The five neutral-site victories are the most by a Dukes team since the 1961-62 NIT team went 5-2. DU has a pair of regular-season neutral site games remaining, in addition to the Atlantic 10 Championship at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.
- DU's five-game neutral-site win streak is the second longest in the nation (to Virginia's eight in a row).
- Marcus Weathers' 21 points were two more than his previous career high of 19 last reached on Dec. 14 vs. Radford.
- Austin Peay's largest lead was seven at 15-8 with 16:20 left in the first half ... Duquesne's largest lead was 15 at 51-36 with 18:33 left ... there was one tie and three lead changes before DU took the lead for good on a Tavian Dunn-Martin layup that made it 18-17 with 11:22 to go in the first half ... APSU led for 7:56, DU led for 31:47.
