Duquesne Dukes at Xavier Musketeers Preview

Staff

Duquesne at Xavier 7:00 PM ET, January 28, 2010 Cintas Center, Cincinnati, OH

CINCINNATI — Duquesne (10-9, 1-4) travels to Xavier (13-6, 5-1) tonight for a critical Atlantic 10 Conference showdown. Xavier, was upset last season by Duquesne at Palumbo Center when the Musketeers were ranked ninth in the AP poll, awaits a return visit by Duquesne to Cintas Center in Cincinnati.

The Musketeers, who have an RPI of 15, are unbeaten in 19 consecutive home games — the fifth-longest active streak in Division I — including 10-0 this season. In addition, Xavier has won 27 consecutive Atlantic 10 home games.

The Dukes snapped a five-game losing streak with a 70-69 win Saturday against St. Bonaventure. … Guard Jason Duty, the lone senior on the team, is shooting .500 from the field in conference play, including 5 for 9 (.556) from the 3-point arc.

Xavier’s sophomore Jordan Crawford, a transfer from Indiana, leads the Atlantic 10 with a 19.1 average. … The Musketeers have shot better than 50 percent eight times this season; just one team (IUPUI, 27 of 54) has reached 50 percent against the Dukes.

Xavier coach Chris Mack understands how much tougher this game became now that Bolding’s contributions to the Dukes have begun to steadily increase.

“There is no question how good he is, he was really good against us last year,” Mack said of Bolding. “He can do a little bit of everything for them and he does a little bit of everything for them. Anytime you bring a kid back who was on the all-rookie team, that can only help you. When you get players back, when you get a player like Melquan Bolding back, you can start to develop who you are as a team.