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Sunday, December 08, 2002

By Ray Fittipaldo, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Duquesne basketball fans have suffered through some abysmal seasons the past few years.In the past four years, there were losses against Akron, James Madison, Furman, Buffalo and Hampton. But a loss that happened yesterday might just trump them all.

	Ron Dokes of Duquesne tries to gain control of the ball against Mount St. Mary's Jason Epps yesterday. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

Mount St. Mary's, coming off a 3-24 season in the Northeast Conference, came to the Palumbo Center and beat the Dukes, 77-63, before 2,907 mostly disgruntled fans.

"We're going to go through some growing pains," Coach Danny Nee said. "There's no excuses for it. This is a low, a major setback. We expect to win these home games."

The loss, which dropped the Dukes to 1-5, was a culmination of problems that have plagued them the first three weeks of the season. The Dukes turned the ball over 16 times against a team that did not press.

The Dukes have 131 turnovers in six games, an average of 22 per game. Point guard Kevin Forney had six yesterday and shooting guard Jimmy Tricco had four.

"It's very frustrating," Nee said. "We got Forney with six, and he's your point guard. He's not deliberately doing it. We call a set play coming out of a timeout. We execute, everything's there, and he gets called for a walk. He got another one on a charge.

"And then Jimmy tries to compensate and do too much, so you have 10 between the two primary ball-handlers. Ten of the 16 come from two of your players that have to handle the ball the majority of the time, and that's not good. That's really a dangerous situation. We thought coming into the game it was improving, but obviously it's not improving enough."

Nee did not allow his players to speak with reporters after the game.

The Dukes were without starting forward Elijah Palmer, who was out with an injured left knee. With 6:01 remaining in the first half, Tricco, who had three 3-pointers and 11 points in the first 14 minutes of the game, missed the remainder of the half because of a bruise to his head after a collision underneath the hoop.

Tricco was on the floor for about three minutes before walking off under his own power. When he returned for the start of the second half, he was not the same player, and the Dukes were not the same team.

"I saw it in their eyes when Jimmy went down," Nee said. "I couldn't even get their attention. Their eyes were glued on Jimmy. That's what I admire about Tricco. He's got a lot of character. He's a tough guy. I thought he was seriously injured."

Tricco scored just three points and was 1 for 5 from the field in the second half.

"When Tricco got hurt that really hurt them because he was making his shots," Mount St. Mary's Coach Jim Phelan said. "We had to go out and guard him and that opened up their inside game."

With Tricco unable to score in the second half, the Dukes' offense was out of sync. In a seven-minute stretch midway through the second half, Mount St. Mary's outscored the Dukes, 14-3, and opened up a 57-48 lead, after Charles Cook made a 3-pointer with 8:57 remaining.

The lead grew to as much as 11 before the Dukes cut it to six with 2:41 remaining after Tricco made a free throw. Then Landy Thompson sealed the game when he made a 22-footer with the shot clock running down.

After going 5 for 9 from 3-point range in the first half, the Dukes went cold in the second, going 0 for 11 from beyond the arc.

"When we go 0 for 11 from 3-point line, that's the game," Nee said. "We need three or four of those shots to go in. ... I was disappointed that in the second half we just couldn't meet the challenge and just play better all-around basketball."

The Dukes take semester exams this week and have a 10-day break before their next game Dec. 18 against Youngstown State.

Nee said he is not panicking.

"We just have to get better," Nee said. "There are so many ways we can get better. It's obvious what we have to get better at. And we can. I told the guys we have a good basketball team. It's a good basketball team that's playing poorly now, and executing poorly. It doesn't have the chemistry it needs to have. ... I believe we're going to get it fixed."

Ron Dokes led the Dukes with 21 points. Jamion Christian led the Mountaineers with 20, and Thompson added 18.