By Paul Gotham
BROOKLYN — Micah Mason scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the second half as the No. 11-seed Duquesne Dukes defeated the No. 14-seed St. Louis Billikens in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center, Wednesday night.
Mason connected on a pair of three-pointers early in the half while the teams traded leads. He finished back-to-back layups to give Duquesne what would be at the time their largest lead of the game at 51-46.
“Just to stay aggressive,” the junior guard said of his mindset. “Make sure I have confidence in my next shot and that’s just the main thing. My teammates had me in good spots tonight and I knocked them down.”
Jeremiah Jones converted a pair of free throws and gave Duquesne a lead it never surrendered at 56-55.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Duquesne’s Jim Ferry said. “I thought our guys really stayed true to who we are and what we are going to do. Defended really well, rebounded when we needed it and played really unselfishly. I thought it was a great win for our program.”
The win was the Dukes fourth in their last six games and second straight away from home.
“I’ll take them anywhere,” Ferry said. “You win them, doesn’t matter. This was a neutral site. I always look at neutral sites significantly different than away games. This time of year we could be playing at Tillery Street Park right now. It really doesn’t matter.”
In a game that included eight ties and 13 lead changes, Saint Louis rallied late. Coming out of a timeout with five minutes remaining, Mike Crawford converted a traditional three-point play and fed Davell Roby for a pair of three-pointers as SLU grabbed a 55-54 edge with 3:45 left on the clock.
“Thought we executed well offensively,” Saint Louis coach Jim Crews said. “We handled the ball. I thought we got good looks. We knocked down some good looks in and we had quite a few that went in and out.”
The teams split a pair of regular season games with each winning on their home court.
“I tell you what, this was significantly more physical than the prior two games. When you look at statistics, it was almost the same score at their place as it was at our place,” Duquesne’s Jim Ferry said. “So I knew it was going to be tough just the way we matchup with each other. I think (Saint Louis head coach Crews) Jim is one of the best coaches in the country, and I knew he was going to have those guys ready to defend, and they really did. This game was just significantly more physical.”
Jones finished with 16 for Duquesne while Derrick Colter added 14.
Crawford led Saint Louis with 16. Marcus Bartley and Roby chipped in a dozen apiece.
Duquesne outscored Saint Louis in the paint (26-16) and on the fast break (10-3).
“That’s what we do,” Ferry said. “We play at a high tempo. I think we are the second‑fastest team in the conference next to Davidson. We play at a high tempo. We wanted to get out in conversion and we wanted to challenge them.”
The win was Duquesne’s first at the A-1o tournament since 2009.
Saint Louis outscored Duquesne on points off turnovers (20-10) and second-chance points (14-9).
Duquesne advances to play No. 6-seed George Washington in the second round of the A-10 Championship.
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