After quirky box score against St. Louis, Duquesne looks for basic improvements against La Salle
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Saturday’s 90-85 Atlantic 10 conference loss at St. Louis (18-9, 10-4 conf.) featured some numbers in the box score that are hard to ignore for the Duquesne Dukes.
As much as they’d probably like to do so.
• At one point, Duquesne (18-9, 8-6) led by 15 in the first half, then eventually trailed by as many as 14 in the second half.
• The Dukes outscored St. Louis 45-3 from the three-point arc. But they were outscored 70-20 in the paint.
• The Billikens managed 90 points via those 35 field goals in the paint, 15 free throws, one three-pointer and one conventional two-point shot outside the paint.
• Duquesne committed 16 turnovers as opposed to only 12 assists. For the season, their assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.25, second-best in the conference behind only St. Louis’ (1.35).
For as much outlying data as there may have been from that game, Dukes coach Keith Dambrot said some basic Xs and Os were at the root of what went wrong Saturday. He said don’t confuse the gaudy points in the paint stat with the quality of interior defense.
“That was really just 16 points of post defense,” Dambrot said. “It was penetration. We know what we have to do. We just didn’t do a great job. They got downhill, and it was a tough matchup for us. They had a good night.”
Having their defense stressed in that way against St. Louis is no surprise. The Billikens are the No. 1 scoring team in the A-10 at 75.7 points per game. They feature veteran guard Yuri Collins, who averages 10.2 assists per game. That’s tops in the conference and the country. He had nine Saturday to go along with 13 points. Plus, St. Louis has a big inside presence with 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward Francis Okoro. He had 14 points and 16 rebounds Saturday.
“Even if it’s not post touches, even on drives, keeping guys out of the paint. Having more intensity on defense, bringing more energy,” forward R.J. Gunn said after Tuesday’s practice. “Most of the practice (Tuesday) was defense, working on our angles and how we approach the ball, how we guard off the ball.”
The concern for Dambrot is that La Salle (13-14, 7-7) is adept at breaking down an opposing defense with penetration too. Except the Explorers can do it with multiple people and may do so with the goal of kicking the ball back out more often than St. Louis.
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“With La Salle you’ve got to keep them from getting into the paint. They have three of the best one-on-one guards in the league (Josh Nickelberry, Khalil Brantley and Jhamir Brickus). And then the Drame twins (forwards Hassan and Fouseyni) are tough dudes. Then they bring in (Daeshon) Shepherd, who is one of the best athletes in the league. They’re hard to guard,” Dambrot said. “They’re probably not going to pass it as much. They’re going to shoot more of them. But Anwar Gill is probably one of the most explosive guys to the rim. They’ve got a good team.”
Dukes forward Tre Williams believes those hard lessons from the loss in St. Louis need to be applied Wednesday night.
“It was just us getting to the gaps and then playing (from the) interior out,” Williams said. “It was really just us making minor mistakes on the defensive end, causing them to get into the paint and getting a lot of easy looks… So on the scout (Tuesday), (La Salle has) three good one-on-one guys, so we have to be better in our gaps, so they don’t have the easy looks and then see the driving lanes.”
Meanwhile, on the offensive end, Dambrot is less concerned with the emphasis on outside shooting than he was with some of the decision-making that led to the turnovers from his team last time out.
“If we’re going to win, we’re gonna have to make threes. I mean, that’s our strength. We’re going to have to make and take threes, and then we’re gonna have to get out in transition and then have a mixture of inside play. We shot 15 for 29 from three (in St. Louis), and we could have made more. That’s going to be how it is if we’re going to win the (Atlantic 10) tournament. We’re going to have to make more threes than most people because we’re capable in more spots than most people,” Dambrot said.
Three-point shooting could be the storyline of the day as the Dukes come in at 37.3%, tops in the A-10. The Explorers allow teams to shoot 34.4% from the arc, 12th in the conference. That’s just .1% better than Duquesne at 13th, but both have gotten much better defending the arc since conference play began in late December.
Regardless of what challenges may be present, after going 1-16 in conference play a year ago, even the mention of what it would take to win the A-10 Tournament feels like a welcomed change at Duquesne.