PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A near perfect ballhandling night for Duquesne in a 67-61 win over Rhode Island in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at PPG Paints Arena Thursday. Dukes had just one turnover as they advance to take on fourth-seed VCU Friday at 5p.
It will be quite a challenge, VCU has 24 wins and is on nearly every bracketologist’s list as a bubble team. One of their wins came against Duquesne earlier in the season, 93-80.
“That game was a long time ago, right?” Dukes head coach Dru Joyce said of the January 3 matchup. “There’s elements of that game where I think we didn’t play very well. Thought early in the game that the tempo was more to their pace and they played really well.”
VCU had 43 points in the paint in that game, made 11 threes and shot 54% overall. As Joyce alluded to, the Dukes feel they are a different team nine weeks later.
“I think we’ve grown a ton,” said Duquesne forward Alex Williams. “I think we’ve definitely picked it up on the defensive end. I think defense is our identity now. If we can defend at a high level, that’s going to win us a lot of games.”
“I think just keeping defense the main focal point of this team and keeping everybody just connected, I think that’s been taking us a long way, for sure, since the VCU game.”
VCU is favored by nearly 10 points for the 5p matchup.
“We play until they tell you we can’t play anymore,” Joyce said of his 18-14 team. “So we just got some fight to us. I don’t have any quitters in the room. The staff is not going to quit. Our players are not going to quit. So if anyone is expecting us to quit, you’re look at the wrong bunch of guys.”
And he could use some of the support he got at the arena Thursday night. Joyce made sure postgame Thursday to thank the students, faculty, administration and just Pittsburgh fans he said supported his team to an second-round win.
“The stakes go up tomorrow,” Joyce said. “Its another round, so hopefully they find some time in their schedule or they clear their schedules. It’s about happy hour time anyway, everybody should be getting off. And they show up again tomorrow with that same type of energy and support.”