Women at Towson preview Duquesne basketball will face two Maryland teams Saturday afternoon as Danny Nee's squad hosts the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers at 4:00 p.m. at the Palumbo Center while Dan Durkin's charges will visit the Towson Tigers at 2:00 p.m. at the Towson Center. The women look to extend their four-game winning streak while the men work to stop their three-game skid.
In the home contest, the DU men are led by a couple juniors, Jimmy Tricco (Phoenix, Ariz. / Brophy Jesuit Prep / Gonzaga) with 13.4 points and 1.5 assists per contest and Ron Dokes (South Bend, Ind. / Riley / Lincoln Trail [IL] College) with 12.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Tricco is coming off a career-high 20 points in Monday's game at George Mason. Dokes scored 29 points last month when the Dukes topped another Mountaineer squad, West Virginia University.
The Dukes (1-4) may be without their leading rebounder, starting forward junior Elijah Palmer (Marshall, Mo. / Marshall / Kennedy-King [IL] College) who has tendinitis in his left knee. If Palmer can't go, senior Brad Midgley (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Canevin) will get his first start of the season and 13th in his career.
The Mount (2-3) is coached by one of the game of basketball's all-time greats, Jim Phelan. Phelan, in his 49th year at MSM, has 821 career wins - most among active coaches and fourth on the career list behind Dean Smith (879), Adolph Rupp (876) and Clarence "Big House" Gaines (828). Leading MSM are freshman Landy Thompson (brother of GW sophomore T.J. Thompson) with 15.6 ppg, junior Pat Atangana and senior Angel Rivera with 6.0 rpg each and freshman Chris Sumner with 4.2 apg. The Northeast Conference team lost their last contest Thursday evening against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, by a 68-53 score. That game was one of few played in the snow-bound east.
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 Dan Durkin 
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The DU women will be taking on the Towson at 2:00 p.m. at the Tigers Towson Center. The Dukes are led by senior Beth Friday (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Upper St. Clair) who is averaging a double-double with 12.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per game, second in the A10. Friday, a A10 preseason first team selection, is just seven rebounds short of the all-time Duquesne career rebounding record. She is also averaging 1.60 blocks per game, third in the league. The Dukes (4-1) will be without their, and the A10's, leading scorer, junior Candace Futrell (20.5 ppg) (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona), who is recovering from a leg injury. Freshman Aiga Bautre (Riga, Latvia / Catholic Central [NY]) has stepped into the shooting guard spot, scoring 17 points in the last two wins over cross-town rivals Robert Morris and Pittsburgh. Her 57.7 shooting percentage from the floor and 66.7% from behind the arc are both second in the conference. Junior point guard Shiri Sharon (Jordan Valley, Israel / Ostrovsky) leads DU and the A10 with 6.6 assists per game. Senior Nikolina Pender is second in the conference with 6.0 apg.
The Towson Tigers are led by senior Mia Chapman with 12.7 points per game. Senior Kyva Jones and sophomore Kelli Talbot lead the rebounding with 7.0 per game each. Freshman Lashay Rose is averaging 5.0 assists.
The Tigers (0-3) lost their last contest, 58-46 at American University Wednesday night. The Tigers were led by Jones with 10 points and nine rebounds. Towson is coached by Joe Matthews who is in his second year with the Colonial Athletic Association school. TU was 2-26 overall last season, their first in the CAA. Matthews was previously an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, Butler and his alma mater, Radford.
TU has two local players, Canevin HS grad Brandi Harris, who transferred from Villanova, and Carlynton HS grad Kacy O'Brien, who transferred from Virginia Tech. Both players, who were AAU teammates on the national champion 12-and-under team, are sitting out this year per NCAA rules.
