Sunday, January 16, 2000
Duquesne 85, Xavier 78
Third loss in last four road games
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PITTSBURGH — It was a frustrated Xavier locker room heavy on “I don't knows.”
The Musketeers were left stunned and searching after losing to upstart Duquesne 85-78 Saturday night in a game XU trailed by as many as 18 points.
Xavier (11-5) had a chance to take over the lead in the Atlantic 10 West Division and instead fell into a third-place tie with Virginia Tech at 2-2. It has dropped back-to-back league games for the first time in four years.
“Their intensity level was a lot higher than ours, man,” Xavier sophomore Lloyd Price said. “Why? I don't know. That's just a fact. We've got to sit down and have a team meeting and see where everybody's at. We've got to find where everybody's heart is. We've got to make a change right now.”
The Dukes (8-7), one year removed from a 1-15 A-10 record, are sitting alone atop the West Division at 3-1.
Dayton (12-3) lost at Fordham on Saturday and fell to 2-1 in the league.
Duquesne ended a five-game losing streak to Xavier and won its seventh in a row at the A.J. Palumbo Center dating back to last season.
“Where it leaves us? Back to the drawing board,” Xavier sophomore Kevin Frey said. “Gut check, I guess.”
The Dukes led by two points at the break, then start ed the second half with a 17-4 run, during which they scored 10 straight points.
XU went 4:43 without scoring and 5:13 without a field goal. It was 53-38 Duquesne with 13:54 remaining.
“They just put their heads down and drove,” Xavier coach Skip Prosser said. “We talked the last two days about how to guard them off the dribble, one-on-one defense. That's all we practiced. We just didn't get it done ... Bottom line was at the beginning of the second half we just didn't guard. It was too big a hole.”
The Musketeers trailed 68-50 with 7:07 left, then rallied with 12 unanswered points. Aaron Turner passed inside to David West, whose basket pulled XU within 68-62 with 3:59 remaining.
West fouled out after the Dukes' Devone Stephenson grabbed an offensive rebound. Stephenson (61.2 percent on free throws) lost a contact on the court, and Shawn Tann (81 percent) made both foul shots.
Frey scored on a layup, and after a Duquesne airball, Maurice McAfee was fouled. He made 1 of 2 and it was a five-point deficit with 2:43 to go.
But XU's next possessions went like this:
• McAfee layup blocked by 6-foot-10 Simon Ogunlesi
• McAfee turnover (his pass was intercepted)
The Dukes built their lead to 74-65 with 1:44 remaining. They made 17 of 18 free throws in the final 3:46.
Xavier has lost three of its last four road games and has reason to be concerned about its NCAA Tournament hopes.
“We're just fighting for our lives now,” Prosser said of XU's long-term outlook. “It's a damaging blow.
“You know me, I'm not going to sit here and criticize our guys. Give the praise to Duquesne. It's disappointing. We have to play with emotion and fire. We're not talented enough just to roll it out, especially on the road. And if we don't that, then things like tonight are going to happen.”
McAfee, XU's leading scorer (14.2 ppg), finished with just seven points — five in the last minute — on 2-of-8 shooting. Price led Xavier with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
A wild first half ended with Duquesne in front 36-34. Two series of events spiced up the first 20 minutes.
The first came after West scored on a baseline layup, then was elbowed in the head by Duquesne's Wayne Smith, who was called for an intentional foul.
West, who suffered a mild concussion in Tuesday night's game at Dayton, fell to the floor grabbing his head. He eventually got up, hit 1 of 2 free throws and pulled XU to within 18-16 with 7:28 left in the half.
Xavier kept possession of the ball, and West was then called for an offensive foul off the ball; it was his third. Protesting at the Xavier bench, he was called for a technical foul, giving him four personal fouls at the 7:22 mark. West ended up fouling out — for only the second time this season — with 3:46 left.
“It kills me to lose,” West said. “It hurts me personally.”
The Dukes were ahead 30-23 — matching their biggest advantage of the half — before XU rallied. It was 34-33 Duquesne when Dukes reserve center Simon Ogunlesi missed a short hook shot off the front of the rim. In a scramble between several players for the rebound, Ogunlesi and XU's Frey tumbled to the floor, and the 6-foot-10 Ogunlesi swung over a leg and kicked Frey close to his head.
Some pushing and shoving between the teams followed. After a television review, the officials called a technical foul on Ogunlesi.
McAfee — scoreless to that point but an 87-percent free throw shooter — hit 1 of 2 foul shots to tie it with 49.2 seconds to play before intermission.
“It leaves us with a lot of work to do,” McAfee said. “We've got to play hard, we've got to fight. I don't have all the answers.”
Turner just happy to play
XAVIER (78)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Frey 25 2-6 0-0 0-5 3 1 5
Price 38 8-19 1-1 5-10 1 3 19
West 25 5-10 5-10 5-9 2 5 15
Mcafee 38 2-8 2-4 0-2 7 5 7
Williams 33 6-18 2-4 2-4 0 3 17
Mcintosh 5 1-1 2-2 1-1 0 1 4
Brown 17 2-4 2-2 0-0 1 4 6
Turner 19 2-6 1-2 2-4 2 2 5
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 28-72 15-25 15-35 16 24 78
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.389, FT-.600. 3-Point Goals:
7-20, .350 (Frey 1-2, Price 2-7, Mcafee 1-4,
Williams 3-7). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 5
(Frey 2, Price 2, West). Turnovers: 14 (Mcafee 5,
Frey 3, Price 3, Brown, Turner, West). Steals: 4
(Price 2, Mcafee, Williams).
DUQUESNE (85)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Smith 31 8-16 2-4 2-11 0 4 20
Stanfield 22 3-7 2-2 2-4 2 4 8
Stephenson 20 1-5 0-0 3-8 0 2 2
Montgomery 37 2-5 6-7 1-2 6 2 11
Tann 16 0-2 2-2 0-0 0 0 2
Ogunlesi 14 1-3 0-0 1-5 0 4 2
Wallace 29 5-11 10-12 0-6 0 4 21
Forney 18 5-7 1-1 1-2 1 1 12
Midgley 13 3-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 7
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 28-60 23-28 11-40 9 23 85
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.467, FT-.821. 3-Point Goals:
6-15, .400 (Smith 2-6, Stanfield 0-1, Montgomery
1-1, Tann 0-2, Wallace 1-3, Forney 1-1, Midgley
1-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 4 (Smith,
Tann, Ogunlesi, Wallace). Turnovers: 20
(Montgomery 4, Smith 4, Wallace 4, Midgley 3,
Ogunlesi 2, Stanfield 2, Forney). Steals: 6
(Smith 3, Montgomery 2, Midgley).
__________________________________
Xavier 34 44 - 78
Duquesne 36 49 - 85
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Xavier 1 (West). Duquesne 1
(Ogunlesi). A: 6,115. Officials: Joe Mingle,
Mike Roberts, Terrance Murphy.
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