Dukes Comeback From Down 18 to Beat Fordham, 74-68

One thing that you can say about the 2018-19 Duquesne men’s basketball team is that they never quit playing.

For the second time in the last ten days, the Dukes faced a large second half deficit only to comeback and win. Back on January 30, Duquesne trailed Rhode Island by 19 points and stormed back to win, 75-72.

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This afternoon, Duquesne trailed by 18 points in the second half at Fordham, only to outscore them 50-26 in the second half to win 74-68. This marked the sixth time this season that Duquesne has trailed by double-digits and came back to win the game.

Duquesne shot 51% in the second half while holding Fordham to just 26%.  The Dukes trailed by 9 and went on a 18-2 run and Fordham never got closer than five points the rest of the game. Key baskets during that stretch were two 3-point shots by Tavian Dunn-Martin and a three pointer from Sincere Carry.

The win improved the Dukes record to 16-8 and 7-4 in the A-10. Duquesne’s overall and conference record are its best since 2010-11 when they started 17-7 and 9-2. According to the schools media department, this is just the third time that Duquesne has at least seven wins in his first 11 conference games. The others were in 1981 (8-3) and 2011 (9-2).

Keith Dambrot’s team had a balanced score sheet as five players reached double-digit scoring.

Marcus Weathers: 16 points (6/11 FG), 12 rebounds, 3 3-pointers
Sincere Carry: 14 points (5/10 FG), 33 minutes
Eric Williams: 12 points, 32 minutes
Mike Hughes: 11 points, 12 rebounds, 7/10 FT’s,
Tavian Dunn-Martin: 10 points, 4 assists, 24 minutes, 3 3-pointers 

The comeback win was important because it kept Duquesne within two games of first place in the A-10 and in contention for a double-bye in the conference tournament. Up next for the Dukes are two winnable games: at LaSalle and then home next Saturday vs. George Washington.

GAME NOTES:
**This was Duquesne’s third road conference win of the season and are now just one more road win from equaling a school record of four, which has been accomplished 3 times.

**This was Duquesne’s fourth straight win at Fordham.

**Today was Marcus Weathers second double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) at Duquesne and Michael Hughes accomplished it for the third time (11 points, 12 rebounds) this season.