Duquesne Men's Basketball Quick Notes

Some quick notes on the 2-0 Duquesne men's basketball team...

DUQUESNE MEN’S BASKETBALL QUICK NOTES

• Duquesne’s 52-50 win at Iowa on Tuesday was the school’s first in 10 tries in a Big Ten arena. It was also the school’s first over a Big Ten team since 1973 (85-83 over Illinois in the Holiday Classic at Madison Square Garden). Head coach Ron Everhart has now led the Dukes to the program’s first ever wins in both a Big Ten and an Atlantic Coast Conference arena (DU won at Boston College under Everhart in December of 2006).
• Junior Damian Saunders has been making Rivals.com look good lately. Rivals named the 6-7 forward one of the nation’s “Top 10 Stat Sheet Stuffers” in October. Through two games, Saunders is averaging 16.5 points, 17.5 rebounds, 5.0 steals, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. Saunders is shooting 60.9 percent from the field.
• Duquesne sophomore guard/forward Melquan Bolding underwent successful surgery to place a pin in his fractured right wrist on Tuesday morning. The 6-3 sophomore was injured on a hard foul four minutes into Duquesne's season-opening 85-62 win over Nicholls State on Nov. 13. Bolding went on to score a game-high 25 points, one shy of his career high, in 36 minutes. An X-ray done Saturday revealed the break. Bolding, who is right-handed, was evaluated by a hand and wrist specialist on Monday and had surgery on Tuesday. He is expected to be sidelined 4-6 weeks.
• The Dukes continue in the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic on Monday in a subregional at Cullowee, N.C. DU takes on Binghamton on Monday (5:00 p.m.), Division II Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday (5:00 p.m.) and host Western Carolina on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) before breaking for Thanksgiving.
• Duquesne is 1-13 all-time in the state of North Carolina (including neutral-site games). DU’s last win in the Tar Heel state came in its first game there on Jan. 14, 1937 at North Carolina State (53-33). Since then the Dukes have dropped 13 in a row. The opponents include: Duke, Wake Forest, VMI (neutral NCAA tournament game at Raleigh), NC State, Charlotte and UNC Wilmington.