Game Preview: Penn State vs. Duquesne
Fresh off a win over Marshall, the Penn State Nittany Lions (8-1) look to keep their winning streak alive against the visiting Duquesne Dukes (3-2) at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Lions are coming off of their sixth straight victory, hoping to make it seven on Wednesday night.
The Dukes are currently sitting in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic 10 conference after starting the season at 3-1. They last took to the court on December 5, falling to the neighboring Pittsburgh Panthers.
Wednesday’s matchup between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Duquesne Dukes is an intriguing one. This is the best start by any team in the Pat Chambers era and people have begun to take notice. This is also the most veteran team that Chambers has had in his four years.
"There's a better team within this team…I feel like we have a lot room for growth," Chambers said.
He stated that they are winning games because of their play in the last minutes of the game but need to fine tune details of their game in the entire 40 minute game.
The Lions hope to be led to a seventh straight win on the back of the team’s leading scorer and fourth highest scorer in the country, senior D.J. Newbill, who’s averaging 23.3 points per game. Other key players for the NIttany Lions include junior Brandon Taylor and freshman Shep Garner, who are each averaging about 10 points per game.
To contest against this trio of scorers and the dangerous Ross Travis, who pulls down an average of eight boards per game, will be junior Jordan Stevens. Stevens leads the Dukes, averaging 16.8 points per game and freshman TySean Powell averages over 13 points per game. The Dukes have only played five games thus far this season due to a schedule quirk and this has proven to be a slight disadvantage with them facing teams that have had double the amount of games.
The Dukes only two losses came against a strong Pittsburgh team and a team that is trying to break away from its losing tradition, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who just recently beat Michigan at the Crisler Center. Duquesne’s schedule after Penn State has a weak Robert Morris team and a mediocre St. Francis. This is an obvious statement game for Duquesne and won’t face another big name school until they travel to Dayton on January 3rd.
Currently the Nittany Lions are tied for first in the Big Ten and have four non-conference games before going back to Big Ten play. With wins in each of these games, that would take Penn State to 12-1 and with momentum going in to a very tough opener against Wisconsin in Madison.
Keys to the game for Penn State will be to control the starting five of Duquesne, who has four players scoring over 12 points per game. The Nittany Lions will need to increase their field goal percentage and dominate the glass against this smaller Duquesne team if they want to win this game. Due to the size of the Dukes, coach Pat Chambers will have the option to go smaller and put out his guards and have Ross Travis and Brandon Taylor to play in the paint.
Tip-off between Penn State and Duquesne is set for 9 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center. ComRadio’s coverage will begin at 8:30 p.m. with the Penn State Basketball Pregame Show.
Mark Fagnani is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email maf5635@psu.edu.
