Duquesne at Fordham

The battle of wills will again be on display in this contest. Duquense with its up-tempo frenzy ball vs. Fordham's methodical half-court sets. Who wins this battle? The answer lies in what happened last time out for Duquense when facing Richmond. Richmond spread the floor and made it impossible for Duquense to trap successfully. The most telling stat in that game was the fact Duquense only attempted 41 shots the entire game. That is down considerably from their frenzy ball average. The spread offense worked so well that Duquense abandoned frenzy ball and actually went to a 1-3-1 zone in the second half. They scored just 61 points. Fordham is very similar offensively to Richmond. The last thing they want to do is get in a track meet with Duquense. Richmond, in their eight lowest scoring games of the season averaged 111.9 ppg. Fordham's eight lowest averaged 103.4 ppg. So, Fordham is actually more of a slow-down team than is Richmond (and Richmond kept Duquense WAY down). The other-end of the spectrum shows Richmond averaging 141 ppg in its seven highest totals of the season while Fordham high-scoring games averaged 141.1 ppg. Fordham actually does a better job at slowing the tempo than Richmond. It would certainly be a tactical error for Fordham to allow Duquense to employ their frenzy ball style, which was beating just about everyone, especially now that there is a blueprint to stop it. The public will bet this total up, as they already have. This one opened at 156.5, and is already sitting at 160! Wait till close to game-time as it climbes and play this one UNDER.