PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – For much of Saturday afternoon it looked like Duquesne was going to limp into the Atlantic 10 Tournament at home in Pittsburgh on a five-game losing streak. Down 30 in the regular-season finale, somehow the Dukes came back and won.
How do they ride that going forward?
Before Saturday, all four of the Dukes previous games they lost by double figures and then got behind 38-8 at home on Senior Day.
How in the world did they beat Richmond?
“In the game, we didn’t even look at the scoreboard anymore, we just won the possession,” said Duquesne leading scorer Tarence Guilyard. “Coach Dru says all the time ‘win the possession, don’t look at the scoreboard’. We just got to keep going and no matter what the score is, keep playing.”
By halftime the Spiders lead was down to 21, but still a monumental task in front of Duquesne. By the first TV timeout, the lead was 15, it was still at 15 with 7:04 to play. Dukes were down 11 with 3:11 to go, Richmond wouldn’t score again and senior David Dixon tipped in the game-winner at the buzzer.
“A game like that, with that type of comeback, being down 30 points,” said Duquesne head coach Dru Joyce, “you can learn a lot from it. First of all, let’s not be down by 30 at any point in any game further. More importantly, it’s a testament to our competitiveness, our will and the poise that we play with.”
“It shows hard work does pay off,” Dixon said. “We did have a rough stretch, but we kept playing, kept battling. Things turned around in our favor, got to keep it going from there.”
Now it’s trying to carry over the momentum of that win into the Atlantic 10 Tournament, held a block from campus at PPG Paints Arena.
“You flush it,” Joyce said.
“That’s the tough part of this business is that we don’t have the opportunity to relish in what we did and what we went through. That’s for another day.
There is a new moment now and the moment has changed.”
“Do we want to take some of the energy and momentum from the last win? Absolutely. We do want to take that spirit and that confidence, but we have to understand we are not playing Richmond, there is another foe in front of us. We have to prepare for that battle.”