Men roll over Green Bay

The Dukes recovered from a season-opening loss in Tucson by dominating the Green Bay Phoenix in their home-opener, 84-66.

Improving on their weaknesses from last week's loss, the Dukes began struggling from the field, but got warmer as the game went on. The Dukes remedied a 37.5 first-half shooting percentage with a 54.5 second-half percentage, while holding Green Bay to 39.7 percent for the game.

The red and blue had five players in double figures, including B.J. Monteiro, who finished with 17 points, and Andre Marhold, who matched with a career-high 17 of his own on 6-for-7 shooting.

Following a Monteiro dunk with 17:46 left to play in the first, the Dukes never trailed again, stretching their lead to as large as 25 with 4:26 left to play.

The emergence of Marhold as both a defensive presence, and more importantly, an offensive force, answered some questions about how the team will replace graduate Damian Saunders, who was the Dukes inside presence for the past four seasons.

"That's a tough guy to play behind and get a lot of minutes, but Andre has always worked hard, and I'm excited for him, that it's starting to pay off," said coach Ron Everhart, who won is 6-0 in Duquesne's home openers.

Marhold said he only focused on his defense, but his offense came more easily with the rest of the team's execution.

"I think [I am] getting comfortable with the offense and also screening better, because whenever we screen better, we're much more open, because the big guy helps off," Marhold said.

Marhold wants to be that explosive offensively all season, but isn't settling on either side of the court.

"I'm disappointed I only got four rebounds," Marhold said, adding that he would like to do a lot more rebounding.

The Dukes entered the second half up 37-23 after shutting down pro-prospect, 7-foot-1 Alec Brown, who had only four points on five shots. While Brown picked it up in the second half, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds, the damage was done early, and the Dukes' rotation of post defenders, Marhold and Mamadou Datt, did the job.

"Battling with Martins [Abele] in practice, he's a 7-footer, but he's like 290 [pounds], so I didn't see it as much of a problem," Marhold said. "I just knew I had to get a body on him and box him out."

Everhart was pleased with the team's ball-sharing, which allowed them to pull away as the Phoenix struggled to score early.

"We probably should have had six guys in double figures today," Everhart said. We had 20 assists and nine turnovers, and that's exciting because, from my perspective, our team really operates well when we share the ball."

Monteiro, who added four assists with no turnovers, said this type of balanced offense should be expected every game.

"We have people with a lot of ability on this team. Any given night, somebody can go off. I think tonight we did a good job picking our spots," Monteiro said. "We're definitely an unselfish team, so I think this will be our normal thing throughout this year."

Perhaps the biggest bright spot in the Dukes triumph was their vast improvement at the free-throw line, where they shot only 62 percent last season and 65 percent in the Arizona loss. Against Green Bay, the Dukes made 18 of 22, an 81 percent clip, boosted by Mike Talley's 7-for-8 performance from the charity stripe.

"Over the last couple years, we'd have won a whole lot of games that we didn't if we would have shot that well," Everhart said.

Everhart hopes his team's unselfish philosophy and success at the line will continue in next weekend's three-game finish to the 2K Sports Classic at Valparaiso.