Duquesne

Drexel coach Bill Herrion is one of two finalists - and the leading candidate - for the head basketball coaching job at Duquesne, sources in Pittsburgh said yesterday. The other candidate is Indiana of Pennsylvania coach Kurt Kanaskie, a former player at La Salle, who interviewed late for the Dukes job. Indiana lost in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II tournament last week. Officials at Duquesne had planned to name their coach this weekend, with Herrion said to still be the top choice to succeed John Carroll.

Darrell White scored 23 points and Collins Dobbs added 21 yesterday to lead eighth-seeded Duquesne to an 81-75 victory over ninth-seeded Massachusetts in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in Morgantown, W.Va. Duquesne (11-20), which will face top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Temple in a quarterfinal game at 6 tonight, outscored Massachusetts by 14-3 to take a 66-47 lead on a free throw by Clayton Adams with 8 minutes, 13 seconds left. Massachusetts (10-17)

SHEY PEDDY SCORED a game-high 32 points to lift Temple past Atlantic 10 rival Duquesne, 67-64, in women's basketball action at the Liacouras Center last night. Peddy, who was 7-for-14 from the field, added 11 rebounds, and BJ Williams added 14 for the Owls (9-8, 3-1 Atlantic 10). Jocelyn Floyd scored 18 in the loss for Duquesne (13-5).   In other games * At Hagan Arena, Saint Joseph's got 22 points from Samira van Grinsven and 11 apiece from Michelle Baker and Ashley Prim, as the Hawks beat Fordham in overtime, 57-46.

Kevin Anderson scored 22 points to lead sixth-seeded Richmond to an 65-49 win over No. 11 St. Bonaventure in the second game of last night's opening-round doubleheader at Boardwalk Hall. David Gonzalvez added 18 points and Ryan Butler had 10 for Richmond (18-14), which will play third-seeded Dayton at 9 p.m. tonight in the final quarterfinal game of the day. Anderson added six assists for the Spiders, who were eliminated in the first round each of the last 3 years. Andrew Nicholson and Jonathan Hall paced St. Bonaventure (15-15)

Kevin "Buzzy" Forney is remaining in Pennsylvania, but he's going from this big city to that big city. Forney, a sweet-shooting, 6-4 guard at Philadelphia Christian Academy (and before that a first team Daily News All-City honoree at Strawberry Mansion), has made an oral commitment to Duquesne. Forney made his official visit to the Pittsburgh school last weekend. He had been scheduled to visit South Carolina State this Saturday after again taking the Scholastic Assessment Test; he is just short of qualifying for freshman eligibility.

The student critics were out in force. "We Deserve Better" was one of the milder signs wielded by a group sitting about halfway up the bleachers at center court at the A.J. Palumbo Center. And they were protesting a lack of overall success by the winning team - Duquesne, which held off a La Salle rally for a 60-55 victory last night. La Salle (10-14, 4-9 Atlantic 10) essentially lost because of two stretches, one in each half, when its offense was cold enough to freeze all three of Pittsburgh's rivers.

Duquesne, the Atlantic Ten team that threatened, but never beat, Temple this season, gets a shot at another Big Five school tonight. Villanova will visit the Dukes at their gym for a second-round game in the National Invitation Tournament. The winner moves on to the quarterfinals to meet the winner of tonight's Xavier-Northwestern game. The Dukes are led by forward Derrick Alston, who scored 21.4 points per game and also averaged 7.5 rebounds. The Duquesne frontcourt also includes Ricky Lopes, a 7-foot-2 senior.

Any young basketball coach who has some success generally begins to consider his next move a move up. Drexel coach Bill Herrion was no different. And when Duquesne athletic director Brian Colleary called Herrion about the vacant Duquesne job three days after Drexel had been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, Herrion listened. He went to Pittsburgh for an interview. He made calls to his friends in the business. He tried to learn everything he could about the job. Late Friday night, Herrion, who was in Seattle for the coaches convention, called Colleary and removed his name from consideration.

St. Joseph's is handling the women's basketball title chase in the Atlantic Ten as if it were a steeplechase event in track. Yesterday, the Hawks had to hurdle several obstacles on the way to a 66-58 victory over visiting Duquesne at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. Neither illness, nor a pair of technical fouls, nor a 22-point performance by Duquesne freshman Korie Hlede were enough to keep St. Joe's (17-4 overall, 9-2 conference) from remaining a game behind front-running Massachusetts and George Washington in the A-10 standings.

The Atlantic Ten Conference has selected Katie Ferris of Massachusetts, Mary Flowers of Richmond, and Liz Walker of Duquesne as the lacrosse offensive player, midfielder, and defensive player of the year. Duquesne's Amanda Kidder was named rookie of the year and UMass's Angela McMahon was coach of the year. Temple midfielder Steph Markunas (Ridley) was named to the all-conference first team, and defender Lauren Caminiti (North Penn) was named to the second team.

Chaz Williams scored 21 points and Raphiael Putney and Javorn Farrell added 20 apiece as Massachusetts rallied to defeat Duquesne, 92-83, Tuesday night in Amherst, Mass., in the first round of the Atlantic Ten Conference tournament. The eighth-seeded Minutemen (21-10) will face No. 21 Temple, the top seed, in Friday's quarterfinals in Atlantic City. There were eight ties and 14 lead changes, with UMass trailing by 78-73 with 6 minutes, 3 seconds left. Terrell Vinson then hit a three-pointer, Farrell made a layup and Williams hit four straight free throws for a 82-78 Minutemen lead with 3:37 to go. After Sean Johnson's three-pointer cut the deficit to one, Williams made a layup and UMass hit 8 of 10 free throws to avenge an 80-69 loss to Duquesne on Jan. 18. The Minutemen shot 50.8 percent from the field (30 of 59)

WE'RE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO: Seeing if three Philly teams can get to Saturday's semifinals in Atlantic City. Got to think league officials would not mind seeing that either. Would certainly help attendance. Temple, La Salle and Saint Joseph's have had terrific seasons so the ability is certainly there. None of this will be easy as there is not a tremendous amount of difference between the top of the league and the middle and there are very few, if any, easy games. TEAM ON THE RISE: Temple has won 13 of 14. The Owls have been rising for months.

La Salle's Brittany Wilson scored 19 points, including the winning three-point play with 22 seconds left in regulation, on Friday afternoon to give the eighth-seeded Explorers (14-16) a 52-49 victory over ninth-seeded Xavier (8-20) in the Atlantic Ten tournament at St. Joseph's Hagan Arena. It was the Explorers' first tourney win since 2004. The host Hawks (20-9), seeded fifth, followed with a 63-52 victory over 12th-seeded Fordham (12-18). Michelle Baker had 20 points, Ashley Prim scored 13, and Ashley Robinson (Archbishop Wood)

When Temple superstar guard Ramone Moore struggles from the field - as he did Saturday - it isn't time for the Owls to revamp the game plan. It's just time to highlight Khalif Wyatt and Juan Fernandez. That's exactly what happened in Temple's 78-59 Atlantic Ten victory over Duquesne at the Liacouras Center. And that's a bad omen for future opponents. Wyatt and Fernandez combined to score 44 points in a game in which Moore, the conference's leading scorer, was held to a season-low three points on 1-for-6 shooting.

When Temple superstar guard Ramone Moore struggles from the field - like he did Saturday - it isn't time for the Owls to revamp the game plan. It's just time to highlight Khalif Wyatt and Juan Fernandez. That's exactly what happened in Temple's 78-59 Atlantic 10 victory over Duquesne at the Liacouras Center. And that's a bad omen for future opponents. Wyatt and Fernandez combined to score 44 points in a game when Moore, the conference's leading scorer, was held to a season-low three points on 1-for-6 shooting.

PITTSBURGH - In a game that featured jarring momentum swings, Ramon Galloway took it back for La Salle when it mattered most. But only because Tyreek Duren didn't allow Duquesne to seize it again one more time. Galloway's three-point play with 1 minute, 23 second left broke a tie and stopped a 7-0 Dukes run, and Duren came out of seemingly nowhere to block a three-pointer that would have tied it at the buzzer, allowing the Explorers to escape Duquesne with a 71-68 victory Saturday.

SHEY PEDDY SCORED a game-high 32 points to lift Temple past Atlantic 10 rival Duquesne, 67-64, in women's basketball action at the Liacouras Center last night. Peddy, who was 7-for-14 from the field, added 11 rebounds, and BJ Williams added 14 for the Owls (9-8, 3-1 Atlantic 10). Jocelyn Floyd scored 18 in the loss for Duquesne (13-5).   In other games * At Hagan Arena, Saint Joseph's got 22 points from Samira van Grinsven and 11 apiece from Michelle Baker and Ashley Prim, as the Hawks beat Fordham in overtime, 57-46.

PITTSBURGH - If the rest of St. Joseph's Atlantic Ten games this season are anything like the first one, it will make for some cardiac-inducing moments on Hawk Hill. St. Joseph's rallied from a 16-point deficit with 91/2 minutes remaining on Wednesday night to beat Duquesne, 84-82, in overtime, in the conference opener at the A.J. Palumbo Center. Carl Jones, the A-10's leading scorer, enabled the Hawks to send the game to overtime by sinking a 12-foot jumper in the lane with six seconds remaining in regulation.