Duty Answers the Call
Walk-on playing crucial role for Dukes
By Ray Mernagh

Duquesne controlled the entire first half of their historic-for the Dukes-72-68 win over then-ninth-ranked Xavier on February 7. Still, everyone in the sold-out Palumbo Center KNEW that Sean Miller's team would make a run to close the 15-point lead the Dukes enjoyed at halftime. It wasn't a question of if, just when. The even bigger question was which Duke would step up to stop the bleeding when the inevitable Xavier push-back came. Would it be the team's sublime senior leader and point guard Aaron Jackson, who's steadily making a case for himself as a legitimate A-10 player of the year candidate? How about Bill Clark, the sweet-shooting and emotional firecracker who hit all five of his shots, including four three-pointers, during a 14-point first half? Maybe Damian Saunders, the Dukes sophomore jumping jack, or one of the stud freshmen duo consisting of Melquan Bolding and Eric Evans?

Nope, none of the above.

The player responsible for stemming multiple Xavier runs played Class A high school basketball and comes out of hoops hotbed Cranberry Township. Before getting into how he came to play for Duquesne, let's tell you about his contribution to the biggest upset in recent Duquesne basketball history.

Xavier had cut Duquesne's lead to nine points, 45-36, on Jason Love's layup early in the second half, going on a 5-0 run that, at the time, seemed to push some of the air out of the Palumbo crowd right out onto Forbes Avenue. The Dukes needed a bucket in the worst way when Jackson swung the ball over to Jason Duty on the wing. Xavier's monster guard B.J. Raymond-he goes 6-6, 230-was running at Duty and fully extended for what looked like a certain block on the closeout. Duty, who is 6-1 if you believe the media-guide-hype, didn't even flinch. He caught Jackson's pass, bent both knees and exploded up into his jump-shot. Duty released it at the top of his jump, the ball missing Raymond's outstretched fingers by maybe an inch. Duty gave a subdued fist pump as the ball dropped through the bottom of the net before running back down the court to play defense. 48-36 Dukes with 17:33 remaining.

Xavier made another run-this one of the 7-0 variety-with just under ten minutes left in the game on a Raymond three-pointer, cutting the Duke's lead to eight (56-48) with 9:29 left on the clock. Ten seconds later, Bolding drove the lane and kicked the ball out to Duty behind the three-point line. Once again Duty's jumper was contested with a furious closeout. Once again, it was too little too late, as Duty's jumper was dead on. The Dukes lead jumped back into double digits (59-48) giving them some breathing room at a most opportune time. Duty would later hit two free throws to push a five-point Duke's lead back to seven with about two minutes left in the game - the foul shots stopping a scoring drought of over four minutes for Duquesne.

Duty halted three separate runs by the Musketeers. He played 32 minutes, scoring 10 points with 4 assists, while not committing a single turnover. And he isn't even on scholarship! In fact, if you listen to Duty, playing basketball was the last thing on his mind when he enrolled at Duquesne.

"I wasn't even thinking about it," says Duty. "I figured my playing days, except for pickup, were pretty much over."

When the campus shootings happened the next fall, Ron Everhart needed players. Dan Durkin, then the woman's coach at Duquesne, told Everhart about this kid he should look up. Durkin's daughter Diane went to school with Duty at Vincentian Academy.

"Dan told me Jason was the best athlete in the school who wasn't playing a sport," says Everhart, "so I called around and had him come up to the office and see me." The kid that walked through Everhart's door looked completely different than the kid that currently plays for the Dukes. Duty is a quiet, clean-cut jump-shooter straight out of "Hoosiers." He's the type of kid a father prays about for his daughter. A kid Everhart now says, "we look to in clutch situations."

But back then?

"He had long hair and a goatee," recalls Everhart, "and he says he's a lead guitarist for this band that's pretty popular locally (Mark This Spot). He said he didn't bother coming to open tryouts because he didn't think he was good enough."

Everhart and Duty agreed that day that (A) Duty would clean up and (B) he'd practice with the team for three days to see if he felt comfortable with what his role might be before any final decisions were made.

Those three days apparently went well because Duty's been marking his spot on the Palumbo's hardwood ever since. You can usually find him a step or two behind the three-point line.