Duquesne Beats George Washington, 78-62
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) — Micah Mason led Duquesne to a 78-62 win at the Palumbo Center over George Washington with a career high 24 points, including 4 three-pointers.
Derrick Colter also made 4 three-pointers and scored a total of 18 points for the Dukes.
Head coach Jim Ferry said the win was the biggest of the season and was a complete team effort and a great win against one of the best teams in the league.
"We had two guys that were suspended today and guys just rallied around each other," Ferry said.
Freshman TySean Powell and junior Jordan Stevens were both suspended for a team violation but could possibly play on Saturday at Massachusetts.
Duquesne came out strong scoring the first 5 points of the game and had a 12 point lead at halftime. L.G. Gill, Desmond Ridenour and Jordan Robinson combined for 17 points of the bench in the win.
"To see Des Ridenour and Jordan Robinson step up like they did, guys that haven't been playing that much, that's special," Ferry said. "That's when you see guys care and they were ready."
Duquesne held onto the lead throughout the entire game, but the Dukes really took control after two big plays in the second half from L.G. Gill, who finished with 10 points.
It started with a shot fake from the baseline corner and then a drive and a powerful dunk from the sophomore. Duquesne immediately made a defensive stop and then it went back to Gill for a 3-pointer to make it 56-42 with less than nine minutes to go that gave the Dukes a boost that George Washington was never able to recover from.
"When L.G. plays well we have a chance to win," Ferry said. "He made a couple huge ones and I thought he played fantastic tonight and he was really active defensively and long and played really hard."
Ferry said a major focus in the game was playing strong defense.
"If they were going to come in here and beat us here we were going to make them do it uncomfortably," Ferry said.
In the last meeting between the Dukes and George Washington on Jan. 24, George Washington scored its first 18 points from the 3-point arc and went on to defeat Duquesne 74-59 at Smith Center.
Despite shooting just 2-11 from behind the arc in the first half, GW still managed to make seven 3-pointers by the end of the game but only totaled for 31.9% overall.
Junior forward, Jeremiah Jones said being aggressive and playing with more energy was the difference maker in the win.
"Last time we played at GW they came on and punched us in the mouth and today I thought we were the aggressor and you can tell that's a big turnaround from losing 30 and winning by 16," Jones said.
Jones contributed an impressive 10 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.