Duquesne bows out of Atlantic 10 Tournament in loss to St. Bonaventure
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Unafraid to speak his mind and frustrated enough — at himself and his players — to not care what it sounds like, Keith Dambrot bared his soul Friday afternoon.
Duquesne’s coach had just stood through — he never sits — his team’s final game of the season, a 75-59 loss to No. 1-seeded St. Bonaventure on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
The outcome was seldom in doubt, even when the Dukes (9-9) went on a 16-2 run in the second half that trimmed a 45-23 deficit to 47-39 with 13 minutes, 42 seconds remaining.
Nice counter punching, for sure, but the problems on either end of it were obvious. Duquesne had gone into halftime trailing, 40-19, the largest deficit and lowest first-half point total in four seasons under Dambrot.
The rally would have meant so much more if the Dukes had shot better than 28% (7 for 25) while committing 10 turnovers in the first half.
Challenged, the Bonnies shoved the Dukes into an even deeper hole with an 18-3 run.
Prefacing his postgame remarks by accepting “full responsibility” for the outcome, Dambrot called his team’s performance on its biggest stage of the season “pitiful” and “predictable.”
“I call it like I see it, regardless of what people think,” he said. “Our issues today were predictable in some ways. I kind of feel like we got what we deserved. We’ve been inconsistent emotionally all year. We’ve been below average as a practice team all year.”
This season has been overripe with potential excuses, including two, long covid-related pauses, the delayed opening of UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, defections of two starters at midseason and the need to play five freshmen a significant number of minutes. Also, there might have been a fatigue factor after the Dukes needed to rally from a 14-point deficit to beat Richmond the day before.
At this point, Dambrot was buying none of it.
“We can sit there and say this, that and the other,” he said. “But championship teams are mature. (When) they get hit in the mouth, they respond.”
“We show good response at times. We have good fight. We didn’t come out ready to play.
“If you play even a mediocre first half and you’re down 12, you have a chance to win. We were below mediocre. We were no good the first half.”
What bothered Dambrot more than anything is he believes he has enough talent to compete with any team in the Atlantic 10. The Dukes lost twice previously to St. Bonaventure, but the second score was 65-61 on Jan. 23.
“We haven’t shown we’re that far out of their league to play like that,” he said. “None of our issues have anything to do with basketball. It’s all emotional.
“If you’re connected, then you overcome emotional issues and maturity issues. But if you’re fake connected, then you’re going to have times when things are pretty good and times when things aren’t very good.”
Injuries might have played a small part in the outcome.
Freshman Chad Baker, whose 16 points sparked the victory against Richmond, injured his hip in the first three minutes, returned briefly and did not play in the second half.
Also, senior point guard Tavian Dunn-Martin was limping through much of the second half, but found a way to score 12 points while missing all four of his 3-point attempts.
Senior Marcus Weathers, the team’s leading scorer, missed 9 of 11 shots and finished with six points, 10 below his average. Senior Michael Hughes led the Dukes with 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
But perhaps the key stat was St. Bonaventure (14-4) outscoring the Dukes, 50-30, in the paint where they had been strong most of the season.
Dambrot accepted blame for it all.
“If we’re not connected, or we’re not playing the right way or (coaches) put up with things we shouldn’t put up with, that’s on me. Not them,” he said.
“But it won’t ever happen again. I’m going to make sure we have a team full of guys who care about winning and I’m going to coach them accordingly.”
An interesting offseason awaits with Duquesne’s seniors allowed to return next season because of the NCAA’s covid-related eligibility waiver.
Weathers said “there’s definitely a possibility” that he’ll return.
Said Hughes: “The season just ended 15 minutes ago. I’d rather be able to enjoy this season before I start thinking about another one.”
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