Duquesne rallies from 19 down to beat Rhode Island, 75-72
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After Keith Dambrot was finished trying to explain Duquesne’s hard-to-believe 75-72 victory against Rhode Island, he knew what he had to do next.
“I’m going to go take a nap now,” the Dukes coach said.
He was tired, pleased and amazed all at the same time. Duquesne (15-6, 6-2 Atlantic 10) rallied from a 41-22 halftime deficit Wednesday night to win behind 20 points from Frankie Hughes — all in the second half — and point guard Sincere Carry’s leadership.
The result was Duquesne’s sixth victory in the past seven games, this one before a crowd of 2,345 at Palumbo Center.
“I’ve coached close to 700 games (675, actually),” Dambrot said. “I’ve never seen one like that.”
His teams have erased big deficits in the past, but this was different.
“I’ve never seen a team play as bad as that and rally back,” he said. “I can’t imagine we could play any worse. I give our guys credit because they were awful. We looked like a bunch of Night of the Living Deads. Zombies.”
The Dukes shot 32.3 percent (10 of 31), turned the ball over 10 times and let a close game get out of control by allowing Rhode Island (11-9, 4-4) an 11-0 run to end the first half.
There was plenty of yelling in the Duquesne locker room at halftime, but not much from Dambrot.
“I went in calm at halftime, and I hear all these coaches yelling,” he said. “It’s kind of nice to hear someone else yelling besides me.”
Most of it came from assistant coach Carl Thomas.
“I’ve never seen him raise his voice,” Dambrot said. “He’s probably the calmest guy we have. He went nuts, lost his mind. He just challenged their competitiveness.”
Man-to-man defense and a full-court press turned the game in the Dukes’ favor to start the second half. Rhode Island committed three quick turnovers after having only one before halftime.
Eventually, with 7 minutes, 7 seconds left in the game, Duquesne had erased all 19 points and taken a 59-56 lead on one of Frankie Hughes’ five 3-pointers.
“We told them, ‘Look, try and knock six points off every four-minute timeout,’ ” Dambrot said. “The good thing is we knocked them off quick, and then (Rhode Island) puckered up a little bit.”
Dambrot let Hughes sit on the bench to start the second half and think about the first 20 minutes when he was scoreless.
“(Our) relationship is really weird,” Hughes said of his coach. “I’d say he gives me lot of tough love. He never gives me sugar; it’s always hot sauce. What he tells me, I have to take it into the vault and try to build on it and get a fire from it. Maybe I’m not playing hard enough. But he’s trying to motivate me in a different type of way.”
Dambrot spent several minutes chatting with Hughes after practice Tuesday and going into the locker room at halftime, with his hand on his shoulder, Wednesday night.
“I wasn’t too happy with him after the first half,” Dambrot said.
But Hughes was there when his teammates needed him, finishing with 20 points for the second game in a row.
With the score tied 66-66 and 1:54 left, Eric Williams Jr. missed a 3-point attempt from the corner. Hughes swooped in for the put-back dunk to give Duquesne a lead.
But Rhode Island kept punching, taking one- and two-point leads that were erased by the Dukes within seconds.
Carry hit two free throws and, finally, Hughes his final 3-pointer in 13 attempts to give Duquesne a 73-72 lead with 43 seconds left. Michael Hughes’ block of Tyrese Martin’s layup 15 seconds later sealed the victory.
“Big-shot Frank strikes again,” Dambrot said. “He’s made a lot of big shots. When the game’s on the line, he’s not scared.”
Sometimes, Dambrot questions Frankie Hughes’ shot selection, but it’s OK when they go in the net.
“If he would have had 10 more assists, he would have had a double-double,” the coach said, smiling. “He never saw a shot he didn’t like. You have to live with some of his bad shots, but I was ready to choke him at halftime.”
Dambrot also gave credit to Carry, who missed the loss to VCU with a knee injury. He had fluid drained from the knee earlier this week and responded with 16 points, seven assists and the type of leadership seldom seen from a freshman.
“When the captains doesn’t quit, your team’s not going to quit,” Dambrot said. “He really imposed his will.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.