Dukes hit a bump, but don't expect them to slow
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Barely a week removed from its landmark win against Atlantic 10 unbeaten Xavier, Duquesne has retreated toward a more customary outpost, but it's not going all the way back into the basketball wilderness.
Somewhere in its five remaining conference games, Duquesne will bump up against victory again, the victory that will nail down a second consecutive winning season on the Bluff, where back-to-back successful winters have been out of vogue since roughly the dawn of Reaganomics.
Historically, when the Dukes need a win of any stripe, they know better than to try coaxing it from Temple, and yet Ron Everhart's team seemed perfectly serious in yesterday's televised confrontation at the Palumbo Center, at least for 31 of the game's 40 minutes.
That's where the fading Dukes instead bumped up against the inevitable hallmarks of what would be a 78-73 Temple victory, meaning the Owls have won 13 of the past 15 in this series, not to mention 37 of the first 50.
"Their size was really a factor against us," said 6-foot-7 sophomore Damian Saunders, as big a starter as Everhart's got. "We tried everything inside, but it was really an inside-out game for them."
Yeah size matters, something Pitt might find out tonight at Connecticut, and even though Duquesne didn't have the sophistication or the height to get past the Owls here yesterday, that shouldn't erode anyone's suspicion that Everhart's probably done more with what he has got as any coach in town.
But Duquesne's problems yesterday had a lot to do with the dangers endemic to its head coach's approach, which is to shoot a thick percentage of 3-point attempts. The more you make the better, obviously, but there is value in merely taking them sometimes, as it stretches many a defense, particular of the zone variety.
No one's made more 3s for Duquesne this season than Bill Clark, so when his first one didn't go down until 6:29 remained in the game, it was no surprise that Temple had already overcome the last of several deficits that stretched to nine points.
"When two of your better 3-point shooters go 2 for 12," Everhart said, "you can't expect to be successful."
Clark went 1 for 5, freshman Eric Evans 1 for 7, and everyone else 3 for 14 as Duquesne shot 19 percent from behind the arc, all of which made Temple's 33 percent from distance resemble the work of military snipers.
Duquesne probably would not have hung around to win anyway, but after Clark's only 3 chinned the Dukes to within a point, 62-61, Evans then missed consecutive 3s from straight away, the first of which he rushed unnecessarily, the second of which he simply bricked.
"There were three straight possessions right there where Temple converted off our misses," Everhart said. "Eric missed two wide-open 3s; I mean wide open."
Even as a coach who has orchestrated the three most prolific 3-point shooting teams in Duquesne history in this, his third year on the job, Everhart had seen enough at that point. Coaches never like to discourage shooters, as shooters swear they must shoot themselves out of shooting slumps, but this was getting ridiculous.
"We actually did it a couple of times today," Everhart said of the rare caution flag. "Early in the game we were getting some 3s from a standstill, not from the pass, but later against the zone, I told some guys, you're going to have to pass that up for the dribble drive."
Funny thing was, Temple's fellas seemed to overhear those conversations, or maybe they saw so many Duquesne misfires that a more traditional approach seemed superior, because from the point at which the Dukes led for the final time (58-57 with 8:23 left), the Owls scored 17 of their final 20 points in the paint, or from free throws resulting from painted-area collisions.
"I was most disappointed with our defense down the stretch," said Everhart, who's more aware than anyone that his freshman-dominated roster is simply wearing out. "Their seniors showed a lot of maturity and while I think we didn't play bad positional defense, we just didn't rotate well."
I'm not sure that would have made a big difference either, as the Dukes would have rotated into Temple's 6-9 Lavoy Allen, 7-0 Sergio Olmos and 6-11 Michael Eric. Allen in particular was more than Duquesne could handle, scoring seven of his nine points in the final six minutes, none from more than 3 feet away.
"We're just not the kind of team that can be real effective in that situation," Everhart said. "I'd like to think next year we will be."
Duquesne will settle into the middle of the Atlantic 10 pack down the stretch and might still flirt with an NIT bid if it gets hot, which for all its modesty is an amazing place for this program to be, all things considered. While Everhart is around, expect only progress.
First Published February 16, 2009 12:00 am
