Banged-up Duquesne trying to stay in thick of Atlantic 10 race
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Problems continue to mount for Duquesne, but so far the Dukes have shown the ability to take a punch and keep going.
The most recent issue emerged Monday, two days after a 68-64 loss at Dayton. It was the Dukes’ second in three games after winning five in a row.
There were seven healthy bodies by the end of practice. Injuries sidelined guards Sincere Carry (knee), Tavian Dunn-Martin (ankle) and Lamar Norman Jr. (concussion) and forward Marcus Weathers (groin).
That’s on top of the season-ending knee injury to Austin Rotroff and guard Mike Lewis’ midseason decision to transfer.
Coach Keith Dambrot is hopeful Carry and Weathers can play Wednesday night at Palumbo Center against St. Bonaventure (8-13, 4-4 Atlantic 10).
But Dambrot said Norman is out after running into a wall at practice, and Dunn-Martin only has a 30 percent chance of playing.
The situation presents potential problems for Duquesne (15-7, 6-3), which has had 11 of its past 12 games decided by six points or fewer. Sometimes, Dambrot allows himself to wonder how his team is 7-4 in those games.
After all, the Dukes are 12th in the A-10 in scoring defense, allowing 71.9 points per game. And that’s with a team that is No. 1 in the conference in blocks per game (4.9), led by Michael Hughes, who has 27 in the past six games.
“For a guy who’s only 6-foot-8, that’s a crazy statistic,” he said. “Imagine how bad we’d be if he wasn’t blocking four shots a game.
“If you analyze those stats, we shouldn’t be 15-7, but sometimes the numbers don’t add up.”
Fortunately for Dambrot, he has Carry, one of the Atlantic 10’s best point guards. He leads the conference with 5.9 assists per game, is second on the team in scoring (12.4 points) and has a team-leading 57 steals.
But Dambrot is worried about his freshman point guard, who has played 77 of 80 minutes the past two games after missing the loss to VCU because of his knee injury.
“We’re messing with fire with (Carry) playing 38 minutes a game for his physical condition,” Dambrot said. “Right now, we’re a little bit slim. We’re playing guys too many minutes.”
But it’s hard to take Carry out of the lineup, especially with Dunn-Martin injured. The next point guard in the rotation is freshman Brandon Wade, who started against VCU and had four assists.
Dambrot said Wade has a bright future, but the present belongs to Carry, if he can stay healthy.
“We got the one guy, the one guy who is special,” Dambrot said. “He can affect the game at both ends of the floor, and he has this competitive burning desire to win. He’s so competitive, it rubs off on the others. That’s why we win.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review
staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via
Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.