By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Sean Johnson scored 16 points and Marvin Binney and Jeremiah Jones each added 13 to lead NCAA Division I Duquesne University to a 92-46 win over the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Sunday.
The exhibition men’s basketball game was played before 1,909 fans at Palumbo Court in Pittsburgh.
The host Dukes (2-0) drained 15 of 31 3-pointers and dominated inside, outrebounding the smaller D-II Vulcans 54-34 and blocking eight shots. Duquesne led 43-27 at the intermission and then outscored UHH 49-19 in the second half.
“They shot the ball extremely well and we shot the ball extremely poor,” UHH coach Jeff Law said. “It was a struggle all game. But give them credit. They came out and played well and they played extremely hard. We couldn’t match them and they took it to us.
“Overall, we didn’t have too many positives ti take away from this game. But now with these D-I games behind us, we can focus on the D-II teams that we’ll be playing and hopefully win some games.”
Eleven of the 14 Duquesne players who played scored, with P.J. Torres and Quevyn Winters each adding nine points and Andre Marhold, Derrick Colter chipping in with eight apiece.
Senior power forward Michael Melonas led UHH with 14 points. He hit 6 of 12 field goals and 2 of 4 free throws for his team-high total. Brandon Thomas followed with nine points, Mychael Hearn had eight and Kiel Myers six for the cold-shooting visitors.
“Mike (Melonas) had a good game,” Law said. “But the rest of the guys had a hard time knocking down a shot.”
The Dukes shot 52 percent (33 of 63) from the field, 48 percent (15 of 31) on 3-pointers and 65 percent (11 of 17) from the free-throw line. UHH hit an icy 27 percent (17 of 64) from the floor, 14 percent (3 of 21) on treys and 43 percent (9 of 21) on free throws.
Johnson made 4 of 8 3-pointers to lead the hot-shooting Dukes and Winters sank 3 of 6 shots from beyond the arc.
The Vulcans opened their trip to Pittsburgh on Friday and fell to national powerhouse University of Pittsburgh 77-45 in another exhibition contest against an NCAA D-I team.
The Vulcans now travel to Oregon and will play Western Oregon on Friday and St. Martin’s on Saturday to wrap up the season-opening four-game road trip.
At Duquesne
UHH 27 19 — 46
PITT 43 49 — 92