Ben Deihl | sports editor

In front of a heavily Duquesne-favoring crowd, No 7. Duquesne held on to beat No. 10 Rhode Island 67-61 in the second round of the A10 Championship on Thursday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. With the win, the Dukes will play No. 2 VCU tomorrow at 5 p.m.

Duquesne’s win was characterized by stout interior defense, ball security and drawing key fouls. The Dukes only turned the ball over one time compared to Rhody’s 14. The Dukes were able to snatch seven steals and score 14 points from turnovers. 

Duquesne got out to a hot start, scoring 10 points within the first five minutes. Jakub Necas opened up the field goal makes for the Dukes with a deep triple after his own offensive rebound. The two teams traded blows until Duquesne went on a 13-3 extended run to inflate their lead to 11. Then the Dukes went cold.

Duquesne went just under nine minutes without making a field goal midway through the first half, letting Rhode Island creep their way back into the game. Tyler Cochran was instrumental to Rhode Island’s offensive success, scoring 18 points in the first half. Cochran finished with a 34 point, 10 rebound double-double, both being game highs. By the final buzzer, Cochran accounted for over half of Rhode Island’s points. 

“[Cochran] was definitely a distraction,” Jimmie Williams said. “At halftime, we kind of wanted to cut his water off. I didn’t really think he was going to keep making as many 3’s as he did.”

After Duquesne broke their dry spell, 3-pointers from Alex Williams and Jimmie Williams gave the Dukes’ offense life as they headed into halftime with a 35-28 lead.

“I thought we had a really good first half, and when you go into the second half, it’s life or death in this tournament atmosphere,” Duquesne Head Coach Dru Joyce III said. “The team who can dig in and really be competitive and value every possession, that’s the team that will find [success].”

The two teams continued the trend of a defensive chess match into the second half, relying on perimeter triples and drawn fouls to score points. Both teams went on multiple runs over two minutes with no field goals, other than the occasional free throw. 

Alex Williams was Duquesne’s go-to man, scoring 22 points for the Dukes on 7-for-15 shooting. The performance marks Williams’ second consecutive 20-point game.

“I’ve always felt confident in myself,” Williams said. “My coaches instilling confidence in me, my teammates instilling confidence in me [has] been a huge part of my success.”

Duquesne followed their season-long game plan to beat the Rams — win in the paint and play strong defense. The Dukes scored 32 points in the paint and pulled down 39 rebounds, with 16 of those being offensive. Rhode Island was the 10th team Duquesne held to under 70 points, and the Dukes are 8-2 when achieving such a feat. 

Ben Deihl can be reached at deihlb1@duq.edu