Duquesne thumps Texas Pam-Am
By PSR Staff | Sun, 12/29/2013 - 17:41
EDINBURG, TEXAS - Ovie Soko scored 17 of his team-high 21 points in the first half to lead Duquesne to an 88-69 win at Texas-Pan American.
The win - DU's third in a row - upped the Dukes' record to 6-5. UTPA, which was led by Shaquille Hines' game-high 27 points, dropped to 4-10.
Micah Mason went 4-of-5 from the 3-point arc in scoring 14 points, Jeremiah Jones scored 11 to go along with a career-high 9 rebounds and Tra'Vaughn White added 10 for the Dukes who shot 50 percent.
Derrick Colter had 8 assists for the Dukes who assisted on 18 of a Jim Ferry Era high 34 field goals.
"We had one guy play over 30 minutes and everybody else was at 28 or less," said Ferry who is in his second season at Duquesne. "That's a balanced team when you have four or five in double figures. That's the way we want to play. We were able to get our 80-plus points and, more importantly, hold them under 70."
The game was tied at 15-15 before Desmond Ridenour hit a layup and Soko converted a three-point play to start a 24-6 run that gave the Dukes a 39-21 lead. Mason scored all eight of his first-half points - including a pair of 3-pointers - in a 1:15 span during the run.
The Dukes, who scored 13 points off Broncs turnovers, led 49-34 at the half.
Duquesne, which played a good portion of the second half with starting forwards Soko and Dominique McKoy saddled with four fouls, maintained a double-digit lead until Javorn Farrell hit a 3-pointer to make it 74-65 with 5:36 left.
The Dukes answered with a McKoy put-back, followed by layups from Soko and Jeremiah Jones to push the lead back to 15. The 19-point final margin matched Duquesne's largest lead of the game.
DU, which shot 50 percent or better for the third consecutive game, held UTPA to 38.9 percent shooting in the second half and 43.5 percent for the game.
"This was a great team win," said Ferry. "We're clicking offensively and we're getting better defensively. We've been pretty locked in and we need to continue to get better."
Duquesne returns to Pittsburgh to host Appalachian State on Thursday, Jan. 2 at 7:00 p.m. (ET). It will be DU's first home game since Dec. 14.
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