+2
Duquesne stumbled into the A-10 tournament with six losses in its last eight games, but still clinched a first-round bye.
The first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament took place on Tuesday, as the conference’s lower-seeded teams played for the right to face the higher-seeded teams on Friday.
No. 9 Dayton blew out No. 8 UMass, 78-50, so the Flyers will take on top-seeded Xavier on Friday at noon.
No. 12 St. Joseph’s upset No. 5 George Washington in overtime, 71-59 (and in case you’re wondering about that score, St. Joe’s ran the table in the overtime period, scoring 12 straight points).
No. 4 Duquesne will therefore play St. Joseph’s at 2:30 Friday. The two teams last met January 5, a game the Dukes won 75-63. That might be in the past, though – that began an eight-game losing streak for the Hawks, but since then they’ve won five of their last nine, while the Dukes’ season sputtered.
No. 10 LaSalle beat St. Bonaventure 75-73 in double-overtime. LaSalle will face No. 2 Temple on Friday at 6:30.
Finally, No. 6 Rhode Island knocked off No. 11 St. Louis, so Rhode Island will face No. 3 Richmond on Friday at 9:00 PM.
The Duquesne Dukes stumbled to the finish line today, ending their regular season with a 68-56 loss to Richmond. Bill Clark had 18 points for Duquesne in the loss, while Justin Harper and Kevin Anderson had 16 apiece for Richmond.
Still, the Dukes have earned the fourth seed and a bye in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, thanks in part to Rhode Island's loss to St. Bonaventure today - Duquesne and George Washington both finished with 10-6 records, but Duquesne gets the bye after beating GW on February 2.
The Dukes will therefore play their first game in Atlantic City at 2:30 PM on March 11 against the winner of the first-round game between the No. 5 and No. 12 seeds, which currently look like they will be George Washington and Saint Joseph's, respectively. Xavier has the top seed in the tournament, so if Duquesne wins its first game, there's a decent chance they'll face Xavier in its second.
Here, then, is the tournament schedule, as well as I can determine it, based on the seeding bracket:
First round, March 8:
No. 8 UMass vs. No. 9 Dayton
No. 5 George Washington vs. No. 12 Saint Joseph's
No. 7 St. Bonaventure vs. No. 10 La Salle
No. 6 Rhode Island vs. No. 11 Saint Louis
Quarterfinal round, March 11
No. 1 Xavier vs. UMass/Dayton winner, 12:00 PM
No. 4 Duquesne vs. GW/Saint Joseph's winner, 2:30 PM
No. 2 Temple vs. St. Bonaventure/La Salle winner, 6:30 PM
No. 3 Richmond vs. Rhode Island/Saint Louis winner, 9:00 PM
Semifinal round, March 12
Xavier/UMass/Dayton vs. Duquesne/GW/Saint Joseph's, 1:00 PM
Temple/St. Bonaventure/La Salle vs. Richmond/Rhode Island/Saint Louis at 3:30 PM
Championship: March 13, 1:00 PM
OpenCalais - Powered by Thomson Reuters
•
Odds Shark 
Photographs by
dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.
Atlantic 10 Tournament Schedule: Duquesne Upset By St. Joseph's
Duquesne’s late-season collapse continued Saturday as the No. 4-seeded Dukes were upset by a weak St. Joseph’s team in overtime, 93-90. Carl Jones had 29 points for the Hawks, while Bill Clark and Damian Saunders had 21 apiece for Duquesne.
The Dukes had limped their way into a first-round bye in the Atlantic 10 Tournament after losing six of their final eight regular-season games, but this one takes the cake. The Dukes had won 11 games in a row in the middle of the season, but those days are long gone. The Dukes’ record now stands at 18-12.
In other Atlantic 10 conference results, Dayton upset top-seeded Xavier, 68-67, and will face St. Joseph’s at 1:00 today in an unlikely matchup of a No. 9 seed and a No. 12 seed. No. 2 seed Temple blew out LaSalle, 96-76. And Richmond beat Rhode Island, 55-45. Richmond will play Temple today at 3:30.
Mar 12 3:00a by Charlie Wilmoth