Spencer Thomas | editor-in-chief

St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt entered Duquesne’s Cooper Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon with the chance to earn his 400^th career victory in college basketball, something only 159 men have ever done. Instead, he was left empty-handed as the Dukes’ Dru Joyce III picked up his ninth, in a 75-57 Dukes victory. 

The win puts Duquesne back to .500, with wins in seven of the last eight games. It moves to 4-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, half a game off of George Mason in first.

Debuting brand-new red uniforms, the Dukes were just as hot from 3-point range. Their 14-of-34 performance was led by Max Edwards, who shot 5-of-7 to lead the Dukes with 17 points. After a slow start to the campaign, he has woken up for a pair of monster performances in Duquesne’s last two contests.

“The main thing is confidence. That’s just my teammates believing in me every day, even through all these bad games,” he said. “I haven’t been confident since the beginning of the season.”

“I think it was just a matter of time,” Joyce added.

The largest and loudest crowd of the season was nearly silenced early on. The Bonnies jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but even then, the signs of Duquesne’s success were there. It started with the opening lineup that Joyce has moved to that forgoes shorter guards for longer, athletic wings that spread the floor. Jashean Corbett, Cam Crawford and Jakub Necas did well to clog the floor defensively. It felt like every shot the Bonnies took had to arch its way over the outstretched arm of a defender. 

Duquesne was also able to stifle Bonaventure from getting deep looks without completely ignoring big man Noel Brown. He scored a game-high 19 points, but didn’t control the game like Osun Osunniyi and Chad Venning were known to do for the Bonnies over the past couple seasons. His performance came at the expense of a 3-of-14 shooting night from the rest of his team. He was joined in double digits by Melvin Council Jr., who exploded for 15 points in the first half, though he only got 2 in the second. 

“Those were the two who scored. I’ll take it, because no one else really scores, so I’m not going to complain about it,” Joyce said. 

Instead, Duquesne awoke from the early deficit to take a 7-6 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Edwards came off the bench to supply a couple of corner 3s, and the Dukes rolled out to a 25-12 advantage. From there, the sides traded momentum down the stretch. When Bonaventure surged to start the second half and cut the lead to 6, Crawford downed a pair of 3s to give the team some breathing room. 

However, the defensive performance was just as loud.

Chabi Barre and Necas used their length to get a pair of blocks early, but Necas stole the show with another block in the second half. St. Bonaventure’s Lajae Jones broke out on a fast break and rose for a dunk that would have slimmed the Bonnie deficit to 4. When Necas jumped with him, he risked winding up on the wrong side of a SportsCenter highlight. Instead, he timed it perfectly and met Jones face-to-face at the rim with a perfect rejection. The ensuing crowd pop was the loudest Cooper Fieldhouse has been all season.

“Guy is everywhere,” Joyce said.  “He brings a lot of versatility to our lineup, whether he’s playing at the guard spot and defending a guy 5 inches shorter than him, or he’s sacrificing his body and going in there and guarding Noel Brown, he just brings the same intensity, energy and effort.”

The crowd’s cheers continued all through the second half, climaxing with standing ovations as Duquesne’s stars exited what wound up being a blowout. The 18-point victory was Duquesne’s largest in the series since 2007.  

There is a tangible positive energy throughout the program of late. They huddled at mid-court before saluting the crowd and dancing around with wide grins across their faces. It’s a far cry from the squad that started 0-6 in November. Crawford maintained that despite the ups and downs, his squad has kept a solid mentality throughout the winter. 

“We’ve been confident in what we had in the room,” he said. “The coaches have been confident in us from day one, even when things weren’t going well.”

It was Duquesne’s fifth consecutive win over the Bonnies. They’ll have another home rivalry matchup on Tuesday night, when they host Dayton.