3/18/10 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Duquesne loses to Princeton in CBI
By Aaron Bracy
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, March 18, 2010
PRINCETON, N.J. — A campaign that started with so much promise ended in postseason disappointment for Duquesne last night.
The Dukes continued the school’s historical postseason trend, falling to Princeton, 65-51, in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational at Jadwin Gym.
Picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll and returning four starters from last season’s squad that reached to the Atlantic 10 Tournament’s championship game, Duquesne (16-16) followed last Tuesday’s first-round exit from the conference tourney with a poor performance against the Tigers (21-8).
“I think this opens our eyes up. We took this season for granted as a team,” said junior forward Damian Saunders, who led the Dukes with 14 points. “We didn’t have a successful season like we were supposed to. We really need to work on things like defense, talking more and coming together as a team.”
The result really couldn’t be considered a surprise, though, at least if you look at the Dukes’ history in postseason play.
Duquesne, which snapped a 15-year postseason drought with last season’s NIT appearance, hasn’t won a postseason game beyond the conference tournament since the 1994 NIT. And you have to go all the way back to 1980 to find another postseason victory. In fact, the Dukes, who began competing in 1913, have just 21 postseason victories in their history. They last reached the NCAA tournament in 1977 and last won a game in the Big Dance in 1969.
At the outset, this season looked like it would be different, but it culminated in all-too-familiar fashion.
“We pulled it all together at times, like Dayton (a 73-71 win Feb. 21), so it shows we could play the way everyone thinks we should play and the way all of us expect to play,” said sophomore forward B.J. Monteiro, who had 10 points. “I think we just have to keep working hard and not take days off, no practices or games, and give it 100 percent every day.”
Adding to the disappointing end to the season was the absence of Bill Clark, Duquesne’s second-leading scorer and rebounder, who was suspended indefinitely by head coach Ron Everhart on Monday.
Asked if they missed Clark, Everhart said, “The way we played offensively we probably did. But we had guys competing hard.”
Minus Clark, the Tigers frustrated the Dukes with their stifling defense. The NCAA’s top defensive team, the Tigers put the clamps on Duquesne — especially after the Dukes jumped to a 20-11 lead midway through the first half.
After that, it was all Princeton.
The Tigers, who finished second in the Ivy League to Cornell and were making their first postseason appearance since 2004, scored 17 of the final 20 points of the first half to take a 28-23 lead into the locker room and stretched the advantage to 13, 43-30, with 11:31 left in the game. Add it up and Duquesne was outscored 32-10 over a backbreaking 16:44 stretch spanning both halves.
“They bothered us a lot with their matchup stuff and we got a little confused and slowed down offensively,” Everhart said.
As they’ve done all season, the Dukes struggled on offense — especially from long range and the free-throw line. Duquesne entered shooting 26 percent from 3-point range, second-worst in Division I, and missed 13 of 16 from the arc against the Tigers. From the line, Duquesne was 8 for 18 (44 percent), below even their poor season average of 61 percent.
“We just didn’t shoot the ball well this year,” Everhart said. “When we don’t make shots and don’t make free throws, it just makes everything else that much more difficult.”
Everhart also said the team’s chemistry never materialized this season.
“Playing together, making the extra pass and helping each other on defense (were problems),” he said.
