Box Score
Aaron Jackson added 18
points and seven assists and Bill Clark had 16 points,
five assists and four steals for the Dukes. Freshman
Eric Evans scored all of his 14 points in 12 second-half
minutes, including a big four-point play that put the
Dukes up 73-66 with 5:22 left.
UMass, which rallied
from an early 19-point deficit to cut the Duquesne lead
to 42-41 at the half, would get no closer than five the
rest of the way as Bolding and Evans combined to
score 15 of the Dukes’ final 22 points.
Massachusetts,
which got 23 points from Chris Lowe and 22 from Anthony Gurley, took its first lead of the game on a Luke Bonner tip-in with 15:49 to go.
There were a total of
eight ties and six lead changes in the second half before
Duquesne took the lead for good on a Clark layup
with 8:42 remaining.
UMass missed a potential game-tying
3-pointer and tip-in before Evans converted his
four-point play.
Duquesne, which jumped out to a 31-12 lead, shot .509 for the game. Bolding and Jason Duty (three each) combined for six of DU’s 11 3-pointers.
UMass shot .434 for the game including 8-of-34
from the 3-point arc. The Dukes outscored the Minutemen
24-7 from the foul line.
NOTES
- Melquan Bolding’s 13 rebounds were one shy of the
Atlantic 10 Championship freshman record of 14 set
by George Washington’s Yinka Dare vs. Rhode Island
in 1993
- This was DU’s second A-10 Championship
win since 1995 and first since 2004
- It was also the
first A-10 Championship win in three tries for third-year
Duquesne coach Ron Everhart
Posted on DuquesneSports.net, 4/2/09