Sunday, February 24, 2008

If you thought losing to Richmond at home was bad...

try watching the Dukes lose a game to La Salle. The worst part about this game was that Duquesne simply got outplayed by La Salle. The Dukes were down by as many as 14 points in the 2nd half, they fought back on a number of occasions when they were down by double digits but they could never hold onto the lead.

Darnell Harris, who couldn't hit a shot to save his life in the first half, came alive in the second half and helped lead the Explorers to victory. At one point late in the game Harris scored 8 consecutive points for La Salle.

I was impressed by the play of two young Explorers, 6'5 So. Ruben Guillandeaux, and 6'8 Fr. Jerrell Williams. Guillandeaux, who scored 17 points today, played with a lot of moxy for a sophomore, and made a few big shots for La Salle in clutch situations. Williams has the makings of a solid A10 post player if he continues to develop.

The Dukes have now lost in their second game against Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and La Salle this year. The word is out, the Dukes' offense struggles against the zone and Duquesne can't shoot the three ball. As bad as Duquesne played today they had a shot to tie it at the buzzer, an open 3 pointer from Bill Clark was off badly when the whistle sounded.

Kudos to Gary Tucker who helped keep the Dukes in the game with a career high 23 points. Tuck hit big threes in the first half and generally played with a lot of enthusiasm.

The Dukes have now lost 3 in a row, 2 of which were at home. Is this year's Duquesne team going to fall apart down the stretch like last year's team?

--

The famous Nellie King was honored at the Duquesne game today. King got a standing ovation from the Duquesne faithful.

7 comments:

Dutch said...

They have hit the wall just like last year. They looked tired and we keep reliving the same loss over and over.

Bonnies
Mass
Richmond
LaSalle

Cant solve zone, cant hit three, watch other team take control. Make somewhat close to avoid looking like blowout.

Anonymous said...

Missed too many shots from the paint today too. Great look at the end, but couldn't convert. Very disappointing.
--gdm

Anonymous said...

This team blows!

Anonymous said...

Still have a shot at the NIT? By the way didn't Duty take the last shot? I could be wrong.

The Duke from Dukes Court said...

actually Duty passed to Bill Clark for an open look on the final shot. Clark simply missed it.

Scoville said...

I sit in the section from where Billy took the shot - it looked good leaving his hands. I thought the play to get him the open look was well designed.

I thought the Dukes downfall, aside from the struggles with the zone was all the easy layups they missed, especially in the first half. They actually came out trying to get the ball inside, but with all the missed shots, they soon abondoned that. Have to credit La Salle too - they definitely hit some contested 3's.

Anyone else think that the one cheerleader was hungover? She almost toppled off her pyrimid a few times. I was a little worried that it was going to end up in a bad scene.

The Duke from Dukes Court said...

You're right the Dukes missed a ton of easy shots in the first half, especially Shawn James. The Dukes finally were able to make some decent entry passes into Shawn but he was never able to score when he had the ball on the block, at least not consistently. Shawn needs to dominate teams like La Salle who lack an experianced big man.

I saw the one cheerleader almost fall down too, I actually think that had more to do with the people holding her than anything she was doing. There is actually some "talent" on this year's Duquesne cheerleading squad. Sadly a bunch of the cute ones are graduating.