Men lose to La Salle

In a back-and-forth A-10 contest, the Duquesne men's basketball team found themselves on the wrong end of a late La Salle run to drop its second straight conference matchup 71-68 at the A.J. Palumbo Center Saturday night. 

With 2:10 remaining and Duquesne (12-9, 3-4) down seven, Eric Evans found B.J. Monteiro in the lane for an open layup that pulled the score to 66-61. On the next possession, T.J. McConnell pick-pocketed La Salle guard Sam Mills and found Jerry Jones open for a 3-pointer that brought Duquesne within two.

Another Mills turnover led to Jones throwing down a dunk off Monteiro's missed jumper, tying the game at 66 with 1:23 left. But a layup, followed by a converted foul shot by La Salle guard Ramon Galloway silenced the crowd and a Monteiro basket pulled Duquesne within one. 

But two made free throws by Mills would put La Salle (16-6, 5-2) up three with just seven seconds left, and the final Duquesne possession ended in Jones's shot getting blocked beyond the 3-point arc before recovering and putting up another off-target desperation heave.

There were nine lead changes and four ties — six and three in the second half — in a game during which Duquesne seemed to lose part of its identity. Its offense, usually reliant on a successful turnover-to-assist ratio, came out of the contest with 17 turnovers to just 14 assists. It was only the fourth time the team finished with more turnovers than assists this season.

Coach Ron Everhart said he blamed the majority of the turnovers on Duquesne's offense.

"I think a lot of them were unforced. I think a lot of them were plays that we made that were not good decision-making things on the offensive end," Everhart said. "T.J. had six turnovers tonight. Several of those were in transition when we thought we had open people. He just kind of threw it over their head."

McConnell finished with a team-high 19 points, but with twice as many turnovers as assists. McConnell said he felt responsible for the loss.

"I put this one on me," McConnell said. "I didn't find enough guys in the open floor."

McConnell's nine first-half points kept Duquesne within striking distance, and a late burst left Duquesne down just 28-27 at the half.

The Dukes were forced to look to the outside when they couldn't penetrate the A-10's third-ranked defense. Only six points came from 12 Duquesne 3-point attempts in the first-half as the Dukes waited for their two leading scorers, Sean Johnson and Monteiro, to heat up.

While Monteiro remained cold, finishing with only eight points, Johnson ignited, scoring all of his 16 points past the 3:17 mark in the first-half.

"I don't think I had the ball in my hands to make plays [in the first half]," Johnson said. "I just let the game come to me. When I was hitting those shots, I was feeling really confident."

While Duquesne's offense woke up in the second, so did La Salle's. Duquesne couldn't find an answer for the guard duo of Galloway and Earl Pettis, who put up 20 and 15 points respectively. 

Galloway, who finished the first half with just two points on four shots, led the Explorers back from a nine-point second-half deficit with 13 points, six from beyond the arc.

Everhart said Duquesne discussed how it was going to handle La Salle's leading scorer in the game's last few possessions.

"We were trying to keep the ball out of Galloway's hands. He's a big-time player," Everhart said. "We had a sophomore on him … Our guy [Jones] is a really good player, too, but he got by him and really made a tough shot, double-clutched that thing and brought it all the way around the world … he made it with contact."