Four Dukes scored in double figures as Duquesne took down the Shepherd Rams 79-54 at the A.J. Palumbo Center Friday night.
↵Led by Sean Johnson’s 17 points, the Dukes offense also benefited from 13 points from B.J. Monteiro, 11 points from Mike Talley, and even 12 points scored by reserve Jerry Jones.
↵Although Duquesne took the lead for good with 17:49 left in the first half, going up 5-4, the Rams hung around for most of the night. Shepherd pulled within eight points halfway through the second half, but a large run for the Dukes put the game away.
↵While the Dukes made 50 percent of their shots, they struggled to shoot the ball behind the arc as they only made 4 of 22 three-point attempts. Freshman Kadeem Pantophlet especially struggled as he missed all five of his three-point shots.
↵Newly added big man Martins Abele scored four points and pulled down five rebounds in just nine minutes of game action.
↵T.J. McConnell had an active night on defense as expected, forcing seven steals. While the Dukes forced 24 turnovers, they were also sloppy with the ball as they had 18 turnovers of their own.
↵Rebounding will be an issue for the Dukes this season and tonight showed why as Shepherd was able to pull down 15 offensive rebounds. Duquesne would get tougher on the boards as the game wore on as they won the battle on the glass 40-33.
↵Duquesne will open the regular season in Tucson, Arizona on November 9 against the Arizona Wildcats. While it would be easy to write the Dukes off already, it is worth noting that Arizona has struggled tremendously in the preseason falling to Seattle Pacific and then narrowly defeating Humboldt State.
↵Tip off is set for 9:00 p.m. and it will be shown nationally on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.