Duquesne Outlasts Saint Peter’s for Third Straight Victory

PITTSBURGH — After snapping a nine-game road non-conference skid at Marshall, the Duquesne Dukes returned to The Bluff to host the Saint Peter’s Peacocks in hopes of winning its third-straight contest.

In the first meeting with Saint Peter’s since 1980, Duquesne counted on Dae Dae Grant’s 19 points and a necessary spark from the former Peackocks, the Drame brothers, for a 68-59 victory.

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Budding up against their former team, Hassan and Fousseyni Drame played a pivotal role in the victory as they brought the energy immediately off the bench as they looked to make a statement against their old squad.

As Fousseyni finished with 11 points and seven rebounds and Hassan adding eight points, they both attributed to a 12-0 run in which built a lead that the Dukes never relinquished.

On a loose ball trickling down the court seven minutes in to the game, Fousseyni hustled to track it down, he proceeded to hit Hassan on the wing. Hassan faked a three ball, then drove towards the hoop to finish with his right hand to commence an eight-point half for himself.

The bucket from Hassan catapulted the Dukes back in front after a Brent Bland triple gave Saint Peter’s a 12-9 lead.

With the bench bringing life to the floor for Duquesne (7-2), the Dukes assembled that 12-0 run.

Apart of that stretch, Andrei Savrasov made his presence felt on both ends of the floor as he scored with the left hand after receiving an inbounds pass. On the subsequent defensive stand, he rose up to block a Latrell Reid shot.

As the Dukes built a sufficient lead and kept the Peacocks (3-5) from scoring for over seven minutes, the Peacocks finally started to find some offense thanks to Corey Washington. He finished the first half with nine points, and Mouhamed Sow went 3 for 3 from the floor as he tallied seven points.

Washington ended the night with a team-high 12 points as Sow added 10.

For Saint Peter’s, the scoreless drought was an effect from the Dukes’ continuous full court press. Just as disruptive as the Dukes were, the Peacocks returned the favor as Jimmy Clark III forced two errant passes into the defense as the Peacocks scored eight points off of turnovers in the first half.

Duquesne’s stingy play caused more problems for Saint Peter’s to open the second half as Clark III intercepted the opening inbounds pass of the half from Marcus Randolph. Grant finished the possession with two free throw makes. Then, the Peacocks were forced to call a timeout on the ensuing inbounds play. All of this occurring just four seconds into the half.

Once the Peacocks finally broke through, they leaned on their leading scorer Michael Houge, who was quiet in the opening half. He accounted for nine of the Peacocks’ first 12 points of the half.

On the other side, Saint Peter’s began to lose its grip on Grant as he caught fire beyond the arc, nailing two triples to maintain a 47-39 lead.

Narrowing the deficit, the Peacocks turned to an area in which they’ve underperformed in, their 3-point offense, which ranked 294^th in the country entering the contest. Sow and Bland buried two triples to help cut into the Dukes’ lead to make it 59-55.

The Peacocks hit 8 of 20 from beyond the arc.

As the Peacocks continued to push, the Dukes offense went quiet as they hit just 1 of their last 12 field goals at the under four media timeout. Luckily, 14 Peacock fouls kept the Dukes afloat as they hit 14 of 17 from the stripe in the second half.

Aiming to pull away, Clark III came up huge at one of the most pivotal moments in the game as his two steals led to a consecutive 3-pointer and drive and finish to make it 66-55 Duquesne.

Duquesne will next take on Bradley on Dec. 18 at Lebron James Arena in Akron, Ohio.