PITTSBURGH, PA. 1/7/2015 – The Duquesne Dukes made four consecutive three-point shots in a four-minute span late in the second half to down the visiting Saint Joseph’s Hawks 71 – 68 at the Palumbo Center.
“There’s not much you can do,” said Saint Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli. “The kid (Colter) put one in at the end of the shot clock. Jones, who made four all year made one, and Gill made one.”
For the game the Dukes converted 11 of 20 from beyond the arc. The critical segment came when guard Derrick Colter made a trey to blunt a Saint Joe’s run to give his team a 59 – 54 lead with just over seven minutes remaining. The key shot came when Colter, who scored a game-high 22 points, was awarded a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock after an official review at the 3:33 mark.
Thirty eight seconds later Saint Joe’s fell behind 69 – 56 after a three by Dukes forward Jeremiah Jones, but started a comeback cutting the deficit to 71 – 68 on a three by sophomore forward DeAndre’ Bembry with 39.4 seconds to play. Bembry was fouled, but did not convert the free throw. The Hawks made a run to get back into the game. Bembry had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but his last second attempt from behind the line was short. There appeared to be contact, but no foul was called.
“DeAndre got fouled, but I have no beef with that,” said Martelli. “That’s what they (the officials) said they saw, so let’s go from there.”
Bembry had a team-high 18 points in the contest. Colter was 8 of 11 from the floor and 4 of 6 from three-point land.
Cold shooting in the second half did not help the Hawks cause who made 13 of 33 tries (39.4%). Duquesne (6 – 7, 1 – 1) converted 26 of 52 field goal attempts (50%). Saint Joseph’s led 36 – 34 at halftime, but quickly fell behind. They spent the rest of the second half playing catch up.
“I thought the start of the second half was the critical part of the game,” Martelli said. “For whatever reason we seemed to be out of juice. I’ll find it.”
The Hawks had three other players score in double figures as guard Aaron Brown scored 15 points, forward Isaiah Miles contributed 11, and forward James Demery got 10 points. Saint Joseph’s falls to 6 – 7 for the season and have an 0 – 2 record in conference. SJU travels to VCU on Saturday.
“We’re walking out of here 0 – 2 in the league and that’s the only thing that matters,” Martelli said.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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