Dukes Lose Heartbreaker to Xavier in OT, 80-78 Duquesne Dukes Official Athletic Site

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Dukes Lose Heartbreaker to Xavier in OT, 80-78 Kevin Forney Leads DU With 18 Points

Feb. 26, 2003

Anthony Myles' tip-in of a David West miss with one second left in regulation forced an overtime period enabling #13 Xavier to escape with an 80-78 overtime win over Duquesne at the Palumbo Center.

Xavier, who never trailed in the extra period, took an 80-77 lead on a Romain Sato free throw with 2:18 left. Duquesne's Kevin Forney hit one of two free throws at the 1:50 mark as both teams struggled to score. Xavier's Dedrick Finn missed two free throws with 17 seconds left setting up a final possession for Duquesne. Jimmy Tricco's 3-point attempt from the left wing was off the mark. Duquesne's Brad Midgley emerged from a group of players to tip the ball to no avail. West momentarily grabbed the rebound, but was stripped by Midgley whose contested lay-up attempt trickled off the rim. Neither team could grab the rebound that went out of bounds with Duquesne retaining possession with 4.3 seconds left. Following a Xavier timeout, Duquesne's Kevin Forney managed to get off a 3-pointer that missed its mark. Midgley rebounded, but couldn't get another shot off as time expired.

West led four Xavier players in double figures with 19. Lionel Chalmers added 17 and Finn finished with 16 for the Musketeers. Forney led Duquesne with 18. Elijah Palmer and Ron Dokes added 17 and 15 respectively for the Dukes. Dokes had a team-best seven rebounds and Jimmy Tricco had a team-best six assists.

Duquesne, who shot 50 percent from the field for the game, missed 15 of their last 19 field goal attempts.

NOTES:

The game featured 11 ties and 12 lead changes.
Duquesne's largest lead was eight at the 9:23 mark of the second half.
Xavier led by as many as seven in the first half.
DU outscored Xavier 36-26 in the paint.

POSTGAME QUOTES:

Duquesne head coach Danny Nee:

"This was a very difficult loss. I thought Duquesne played as hard as it can. We had chances, we just couldn't close it out. It was a hell of a college basketball game.

"I feel we're making great strides to being competitive."

Duquesne guard Jimmy Tricco:

At the end of overtime: "We ran a play for a three we've worked on all season. It worked in Florida [in late December], it didn't work today."

Xavier head coach Thad Matta:

"I knew this was going to be a tough place to play. This was a huge game for their seniors. Down the stretch we had some stops. We weren't very good tonight. I had a feeling this would be a difficult game. If Duquesne could go back and re-play the last three minutes of about eight games, they'd be a different team."

MEDIA REPORTS

NEXT

Duquesne heads to Philadelphia to face Atlantic 10 West foe La Salle (10-14, 4-9) on Saturday, March 1. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. In the first meeting this season, the Explorers defeated the Dukes 82-74 at Pittsburgh on Feb. 8.