PITTSBURGH – B.J. Monteiro scored a career-high 28 points and T.J. McConnell tied his career best with 20 as Duquesne rallied from a 12-point first half deficit to defeat Bowling Green 86-76 at the Palumbo Center.
The Dukes handed out a season-high 24 assists in upping their record to 8-5.
A’uston Calhoun and Scott Thomas scored 24 and 20 points respectively for Bowling Green which dropped to 6-6 overall and 1-5 on the road.
Duquesne led by four early before Bowling Green, behind the scoring of Calhoun and Thomas, went on a 17-1 run to take a 29-17 lead with 8:41 left in the half. The Dukes trailed by 11 with 7:44 to go before closing the half with a 24-7 run to take a 45-39 lead.
Monteiro, who had 15 in the first half, and Sean Johnson, who finished with 16, combined for 17 points during the half-ending run.
Bowling Green rallied to take a 52-51 lead on a Dee Brown jumper with 14:51 to go before Kadeem Pantophlet scored off a pass from McConnell to ignite a 13-3 run. Monteiro added a layup and McConnell, Johnson and McConnell hit 3-pointers to make it 64-55 with 12 minutes left. BGSU cut it to six twice before Monteiro started a mini 7-2 run that put the Dukes up 76-63 with 6:37 to go. Bowling Green got no closer than eight the rest of the way.
“I was excited about the way B.J. finished around the rim and I was even more excited that between T.J. [McConnell], Sean [Johnson] and Eric [Evans] we had 16 assists,” said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart of the Dukes who assisted on 24 of 31 field goals.
“We decided to go small and sometimes you get a little bit lucky and it worked out for us,” continued Everhart. “We certainly gave up our share of rebounds in the trade-off to play small, but we also created some turnovers that led to easy baskets for us. For the most part that – and B.J.’s free throw shooting – was the difference in the game.”
Monteiro, a career 51.2 percent free throw shooter, went 6-of-9 from the line in eclipsing his previous career high of 27 set in a double-overtime win over Canisius during his sophomore season. Monteiro, who was 11-of-14 from the field, upped his career point total to 997.
McConnell, who hit a career-best four 3-pointers, added six assists and three steals.
Evans had five assists in 26 turnover-free minutes and Johnson added a career high-tying five assists and two steals.
Duquesne, which shot 52.5 percent, turned it over just seven times. Bowling Green also shot well at 53.6 percent but couldn’t overcome its 18 turnovers.
Duquesne concludes the non-conference portion of the regular season schedule against Houston Baptist on New Year’s Eve at 4:00 p.m. The HBU game will be preceded by the Duquesne women against Robert Morris at 1:00 p.m.
NOTES
• The 12-point comeback tied the fifth-best of the Everhart Era … it was the largest deficit overcome since DU rallied from 14 down to defeat La Salle 103-82 on Feb. 14, 2010.
• DU finished with a season-high 24 assists on 31 field goals … T.J. McConnell had 6 and Eric Evans and Sean Johnson had 5 each … it was the third 5 assist game of Johnson’s career.
• B.J. Monteiro topped the 20-point mark for the sixth time in his career and second time this season with a career high 28 points … his previous career-best was 27 in a double-overtime win over Canisius his sophomore year … Monteiro will enter Saturday’s game against Houston Baptist needing three points to reach 1,000 for his career.
• T.J. McConnell hit a career-high four 3-pointers (4-of-7) in matching his career high of 20 points set at Green Bay last season … McConnell’s previous career best for 3-pointers made was three on seven occasions.
• There were three ties and eight lead changes before Duquesne took the lead for good on Kadeem Pantophlet’s layup with 14:37 left … Bowling Green’s largest lead was 12 points at 29-17 with 8:32 left in the first half … Duquesne’s largest lead was 15 points at 82-67 with 2:38 to go.
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