Duquesne Set to Take on Northeastern in Paradise Jam Matchup

On Friday, Duquesne will take on Northeastern in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands as a part of the Paradise Jam tournament.

Duquesne comes in at 1-2 after falling in a close battle to Weber State on Monday. In that game, the Dukes were led by a spectacular Jackie Johnson, who dropped a career-high 27 points in the loss. Kevin Easley also added ten points, and big man Tre Williams grabbed nine rebounds.

Duquesne men's and women's basketball on PSN is sponsored by Moon Golf Club.

Primo Spears, who was the team’s leading scorer coming into the game, was held to just two points in 24 minutes, going 0 for 7 from the field.

The Dukes struggled to take care of the ball, committing 20 turnovers.

“I don’t know if it’s mental or just stupid,” head coach Keith Dambrot said after the game. “You just have to have discipline and that’s coaching too. These statistics are outrageous. We get 17 offensive rebounds and made 20 turnovers, which I don’t even know how we made them. They weren’t really pressuring us, we just made mistakes. That cost us. A lot of it is mental toughness. In fairness when you come to a new system and ours is more then some, you can’t play until you free your brain up.”

https://youtu.be/8HkmJL2Q5Uc

For Friday’s game, Duquesne will take on another 1-2 team in Northeastern. The Huskies are coming off a 49-48 low-scoring win over Boston University. They are led by Chris Doherty and Jahmyl Telfort, who are averaging 14.7 and 12.3 points per game, respectively. As a team, Northeastern is shooting 41% from the field and 28% from three-point range.

If the Dukes want to come out on top and advance in the tournament, they are going to look to star Kevin Easley to lead the way, as well as both of their young point guards, Johnson and Spears, to score in a more balanced effort. Two forwards coming off of recent injuries, RJ Gunn and Austin Rotroff, should play bigger roles in this one after working their way back into the rotation in the game on Monday.

The spread for Friday’s matchup is set at Duquesne (-2), according to DraftKings Sportsbook. The over/under is set at 123.5.

The game will be broadcast on either ESPN3 OR ESPN+, as well as on the radio at 104.7 HD2 and 970 ESPN.