It wasn’t about the game. It was about the event.

The bond between Saturday’s coaching opponents was on display all afternoon at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, where former Duquesne assistant Carl Thomas and his first-year NAIA program at Cleary University were in town to face Thomas’ old boss, Keith Dambrot, and the Dukes.

They already knew the outcome had been decided: Duquesne 95, Cleary 47.

It could’ve been worse for Thomas’ Michigan-based outfit if not for Dambrot emptying his bench and giving all 18 of Duquesne’s players a chance, including the walks-ons.

“I hate playing my friends,” Dambrot said. “Actually, I don’t even consider Carl a friend. He’s really family to me. I hate playing family, but we couldn’t get any games, so he was nice enough to play the game. I probably wouldn’t have if I was him. But it was good for us at this time of the year, because this is a hard time to really play great basketball. We needed a game going into the conference (schedule).”

Thomas, one half of the Thomas twins — both former Duquesne assistants — spent five seasons with Dambrot before departing to take on the task of building his own program.

“I couldn’t have had a better person to learn from as coach Dambrot — as a player at Eastern (Michigan) and as a coach here — to try to run my own program,” Thomas said. “I believe in what he’s done. He’s won, and the proof is in the pudding (513-296 in 26 seasons overall).”

Jimmy Clark III scored 15 points, and Dusan Mahorcic gave a glimpse of his immense potential by scoring 15 points in just 7 minutes as the Dukes crushed Cleary to take a bit of momentum into their Atlantic 10 opener on Wednesday at Massachusetts.

The victory was the 100th in Dambrot’s seven seasons at Duquesne, making him the fourth Dukes coach to hit the mark. Chick Davies (314), Red Manning (247) and Dudey Moore (191) were the others, and Dambrot broke a tie with Ron Everhart at 99.

David Dixon, in his first start of the season, added 12 points for Duquesne (9-3), which expectedly bounced back from an 81-73 loss to Santa Clara a week ago in Las Vegas and won for the fifth time in the the past six games.

“Coming into a game like this, we didn’t want to take our opponent lightly,” said Clark, who shot 6 for 6, including 3 for 3 from 3-point range, and played the most minutes (23) for Duquesne. “We felt this game was more of a mindset game going into the next game. It wasn’t about what we did out there on the floor. It was about how we went about it. For this game, I thought we had the right mindset and went out and handled business.”

Said Dambrot: “It was a good game for us at this time of year, just to get our trip from Vegas and our Christmas out of the way and get ready for the conference.”

It was the first time this season that Dambrot deviated from his usual starting lineup. He used Dixon to replace Chabi Barre in a trade of 6-foot-9 sophomores and inserted Fousseyni Drame in place of Andrei Savrasov, both 6-7 grad students, at the opening tip.

“I just felt like it was a good time to swap it up. It’s good for your team, too,” Dambrot said. “Guys have to be willing to make sacrifices for the good of the group. Our biggest thing is the collectiveness and the team bonding, because we have so many guys that are capable of playing. If you don’t continually work on that, you can have issues, and we’ve had some.”

Dambrot substituted freely in a game that arguably benefitted the visitors more than their hosts. Cleary, which serves as Thomas’ second head coaching job, is winless against 11 NAIA opponents and 0-3 against NCAA competition.

The brother of Saint Louis assistant Charles Thomas, who coached under Dambrot at Duquesne for six seasons, Carl Thomas also spent four years directing Jackson (Mich.) at the junior college level before coming to Duquesne.

After a challenging string of nonconference games that included a late meltdown against Santa Clara, Duquesne viewed Saturday’s outing as a teaching tool before entering its A-10 schedule.

“They played some zone, which was good for us,” Dambrot said, “because UMass is going to play some zone, as well.”

With both coaches joining each other to address the media after the game, the mood at times turned comical.

“This is a first for a while, where the two coaches are in the press conference at once,” he said. “It can be like John Calipari and John Chaney. The only problem is Carl is much bigger and can kick my (behind).”

Dambrot, of course, was referring to the infamous postgame feud between the two former A-10 coaches — Calipari at UMass and Chaney at Temple — on Feb. 13, 1994, when Chaney’s notorious “I’ll kill you” threat to Calipari became one of college sports’ most dramatic moments.

This pair, however, harbors nothing but love for each other.

“It was a unique game for me,” Dambrot said, “because Carl played for me (at Eastern Michigan, when Dambrot served as an assistant). (Cleary player Anthony) Ivey’s brother (Jimond Ivey) was a really good player for me at Akron, Charles’ son (Carter Thomas, like Anthony Ivey) played today (for Cleary), and, obviously, JJ (Cole-Williams, a former Duquesne walk-on) played (for Cleary). It was a weird dynamic. I felt like I was deja vu.”

Duquesne shot 52.2% overall with the 6-10, 250-pound Mahorcic, the N.C. State transfer making his second appearance after offseason knee surgery, converting all five of his field-goal attempts and connecting on 5 of 7 free throws.

“It was a big game for me in a sense of just getting back out there,” said Mahorcic, who made his season debut for Duquesne by playing 4 minutes, 55 seconds against Santa Clara on Dec. 23. “For me, it was a little different, because it was my first home game. I had a little bit extra on the situation to play in front of the fans. No matter the opponent, we play in a really good league. This was a good test for us to see that when we are up, can we stay up and can we do the little things?

“It meant a lot to just get another game under my legs to help with my conditioning. You guys can see I’m really tired.”

Duquesne’s Dae Dae Grant, the A-10’s leading scorer, finished with nine points in 19 minutes but made all three of his free throws to improve his season percentage to 96% (72 for 75).

Cole-Williams, the former Duquesne walk-on who transferred to Cleary, was in the Cougars’ starting lineup and finished with four points in 25 minutes. Chris Williams led Cleary with eight points.

With this mismatch out of the way for both teams, Dambrot and Thomas shook hands before and after the game. They even shared a few hugs.

“We played numerous times when Carl was an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan,” Dambrot recalled of his days as coach at Akron. “Most of the time, we won. Every time after the game, I’d give him a big hug. But they beat us one time and I didn’t give him a hug. I was so (upset). That just tells you, no matter how much you love each other, your competitive nature comes through. And he reminds me of it constantly.”

Just then, Thomas broke in, perhaps attempting to mimic the Calipari-Chaney moment.

“I did out there remind you just now. ‘Hey, you better give me a hug,’ ” Thomas quipped.

To which Dambrot replied: “This guy is straight family, not friend. There’s a huge difference. I have a lot of friends, but not family members. We’ve spent a lot of time together, and I have a lot of respect for him.”

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