Duquesne rolls over Saint Joseph’s for 18th victory, tripling last season’s total
Share this post:
After the first few minutes of Duquesne’s 76-62 victory against Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday night, the outcome never was in question.
Duquesne played smothering defense at least through the first half when the Dukes forced 11 Saint Joseph’s turnovers and held the Hawks to 24 points.
They made 50% of their shots over 40 minutes and were in front by 23 with 6:36 to play. Duquesne has won five of its past six games and four in a row to start February for the first time since 1971.
Flexing his depth, coach Keith Dambrot used 11 players, and nine of them scored, led by Tevin Brewer (16 points) and Jimmy Clark, whose crowded stat line included eight points, six rebounds, nine assists and three steals.
“Eventually, we kind of wore them down,” Dambrot said.
But the game played in front of 1,756 at Cooper Fieldhouse had significant meaning to what Dambrot is rebuilding.
The Dukes improved to 18-8 overall, tripling their victory total from a year ago.
“We were pretty bad last year, and we’re pretty good this year,” Dambrot said.
They are also 8-5 in the Atlantic 10, one game behind fourth-place Saint Louis and the last of the four double byes in the conference tournament next month. The Dukes visit Saint Louis on Saturday night.
Which brings up an interesting point: While many coaches insist they play one game at a time, Duquesne has five games left in the regular season, but the Dukes aren’t afraid to think about the A-10 Tournament that opens March 7 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the NCAA version that hasn’t invited the Dukes since 1977.
“Getting to that tournament is definitely a big goal for us,” said junior forward Tre Williams, who had 13 points and six rebounds, “and it’s something that we’re going to make happen.”
Duquesne must win the conference tournament to get there, but Dambrot said he believes his team is built to succeed in the postseason.
“We’ve become a little bit more consistent than we were earlier,” he said. “We’re scary. I wouldn’t want to be one of those top teams to play us. I’d rather play somebody else who doesn’t have as much juice. Because we can hurt you pressuring you and we can shoot it in on you if you’re not careful.
“I don’t have any doubt we can compete. So, I don’t feel any pressure that way. I just want to get one of those top four byes. We have enough depth that we can do it the hard way, too. Where, some people don’t. All I care about is getting better every single day. If we do that, we’ll have a shot.”
In his previous coaching job, Dambrot led Akron to seven consecutive Mid-American Conference championship games. He knows what it takes to win in tournament play.
“(Duquesne)’s never been there,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest hurdle we face. Sometimes, that’s good, too, because they’ll probably go out there and play and not worry about anything. Nobody thinks they’re going to win it.”
He said he’s not motivated by a lack of respect or the fact that his team was picked last in the A-10 preseason poll.
“I’m going to motivate myself because I want to be great, probably because I was such a bad athlete,” he said.
“If somebody else had that kind of year, I don’t know if they would have picked them last. People probably thought I stunk, or I lost it. I can’t coach anymore.
“All that did was reinvigorate me into working like I did when I was 25.”