By Steve DiMiceli
You wouldn't know unless you looked closely but Duquesne played a half of 10/40 today without the platoon. They used it to amass a nine point lead on ten first half three pointers and needed everyone of them to hold off a Dayton onslaught early in the second half. Duquesne's three point shooting was outstanding and was lead by some unexpected players. BJ Montiero and Mike Talley have both struggled from distance this year but combined for 6-11 behind the arc. TJ McConnell didn't quite get the 10 assists I expected it would take for a Dukes win but he did have 7 to go along with 9 points, 2 steals and 5 boards.
Dayton did a nice job early in the second to keep the Dukes from scoring off the dribble with a high pressure man holding the Dukes to 6 points in the first 10 minutes of the half. Andre Marhold played pretty good defense on Matt Kavanaugh after being reinserted into the game preventing the Flyers from going further ahead. Dayton could not keep up the effort as the half wore on and they eventually began to sag yielding 28 points the rest of the way. The Dukes proved hungrier than the Flyers or at least to be in better shape.Around the 10 minute mark TJ was reinserted into the game and immediately sparked his team setting up Jerry Jones twice with primary and secondary assists and just like that restoring a 3 point Duquesne lead. For as good as Kavanaugh was with the ball in hands he was terrible without it. Several dumb fouls and a charge while he was show boating a little on a lay caused him to set with 4 fouls.When the Dukes scored tonight, they scored in bunches and the Flyers simply did not score consistently enough over 40 minutes to win tonight.
Credit to Coach Miller, he came in with the right game plan for BJ Montiero. It doesn't sound like the Dukes were ever able to get him on Kavanagh and they had Chris Johnson on him most of the way, a very good move in my opinion. While I'm glad BJ had some success from three, I hope he doesn't abandon the dribble penetration he's been so successful with this year. Still, this should get him out of his slump. Also credit Ron Everhart for trusting his bench more than normal today. He kept his players fresh with a deep rotation in the first half and gave players like PJ Torres and Derrick Martin some much needed minutes.
Gutty performance overall. This is the kind of win that restores hope to humanity following a typical Everhart loss. This team is now 7-1 after losing. You have to give them credit that they bounce back quickly, a new trait we've not seen before. Gives me a little hope that the February backslid may not come either. Of course with big wins come new expectations. A loss against Richmond this weekend would become a terrible disappointment. Let's hype it up and hope for a nice win in front of a good sized crowd.
