2011 Duquesne Dukes Basketball: Duquesne @ Massachusetts

Bouncing back from their loss to Xavier on Sunday wasn't much of an issue for Ron Everhart's Duquesne Dukes on Wednesday night. The Dukes would never trail at Massachusetts, breaking the game open early with a 22-2 run and sealing it in the second half with a 14-1 run, winning by the final score of 81-63. Bill Clark led five Duquesne (17-7, 9-2) players in double figures with 17 points while also accounting for seven assists, and as a team the Dukes assisted on 24 of their 30 made field goals.

Jesse Morgan (14 points) and Raphiael Putney (10) scored 24 points off the bench for Massachusetts (13-11, 5-6), but with starters Javorn Farrell (3-12 FG) and Anthony Gurley (3-13 FG) struggling from the field the Minutemen found themselves unable to crawl out of the early hole they fell into. The two teams got off to cold starts, with no points being scored for the first two minutes of the game. A Gurley layup with 16:33 left in the half tied the score at 4, but that would be as close as UMass would get for the remainder of the game.

Eleven seconds later a Clark three sparked the 22-2 run that culminated with a pair of B.J. Monteiro free throws with 7:41 left in the first half. The points were spread around for Coach Everhart's team as well, with T.J. McConnell scoring seven, Monteiro six and Mike Talley five points during the run. Five of UMass' 23 turnovers were committed during a stretch where they could only muster a pair of Putney free throws with 11:35 remaining in the half, and UMass went more than nine minutes without a field goal.

The game featured a combined 41 turnovers, but the differences were Duquesne's edge in points off of turnovers (30-22) and UMass being unable to distribute the basketball with a level of consistency needed to beat the better teams in the Atlantic 10 (eight assists on 23 made baskets). Another Clark three with 5:22 left in the half would give Duquesne their largest lead of the half at 32-10. UMass would outscore the Dukes 15-6 the rest of the half, cutting the visitors' lead to 38-25 on a Farrell jumper as time expired.

Derek Kellogg's club would make a push early in the second half, cutting the Duquesne lead to nine on a Morgan layup with 13:39 left in the game to make the score 46-37. But Clark would answer just 18 seconds later with the third of his four three-pointers on the night to push the lead back into double digits for good. A Putney layup less than two minutes later would cut the lead to 10 at 51-41 but 10 seconds later a Damian Saunders basket would spark a 14-1 run that ended the game for all intents and purposes.

Next up for the Dukes is a game at Dayton on Saturday afternoon, and UMass visits Rhode Island the same day.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Dukes Rebound to Win at UMass