Duquesne rallies in 2nd half but falls to St. Bonaventure
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When a coach becomes accustomed to winning, accepting defeat is like swallowing bitter medicine.
But Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said after the Dukes’ 64-56 loss to St. Bonaventure on Friday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse that his team made important strides toward becoming a better team. Maybe not a good one yet, but he liked much of what he saw toward that end.
The loss was the Dukes’ third in a row, and they walked off the floor with a 6-10 record (1-3 in the Atlantic 10). That’s not acceptable to Dambrot and his staff, but it makes sense under the circumstances.
“I told them, you can’t accept losing,” said Dambrot, who has won 484 games in his 24-year career. “You have to win at home, and you have to expect to win those games.”
But he also knows that he started freshman guards Primo Spears and Jackie Johnson III and three transfers who never played in the Atlantic 10 until this year. Meanwhile, St. Bonaventure (11-4, 3-1) started five seniors, including 6-foot-10 center Osun Osunniyi, who often had his way with the smaller Dukes. He finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds — 13 off the offensive glass.
With a record — and noisy — crowd of 3,032 packed inside Cooper Fieldhouse, Duquesne tried to rally after trailing by 16 in the first half. Twice, it cut the lead to three. But in one stretch after halftime, Osunniyi four times grabbed an errant shot by one of his teammates and dunked.
Still, the Dukes had a chance to crawl closer late in the game, but they missed six of what Dambrot referred to as “open” 3s, allowing St. Bonaventure to secure the victory. “If you make half of them … ” he said.
Duquesne never led, but Dambrot walked away eager to critique the tape and get his team back in the gym to start making corrections.
“In my heart of hearts, I don’t think we’re that far away. I don’t think we’re good right now, but I don’t think we’re that far away from being a competitive team,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re there yet, but we’re going to use this year to learn how to do it the right way.”
He added, “I don’t think we played the right way for the last eight or 10 games.
Almost from the opening tip of the nationally televised game, the Dukes appeared overmatched, shooting 27.6% in the first half and falling behind 23-7 with 7 minutes, 35 seconds to play.
“We came out with some jitters and weren’t making enough shots,” forward Tre Williams said. “We can’t let that happen. We have to come out and be focused.”
But they battled back, trailed by 11 at halftime and — most importantly — learned how to take a punch and give it back. They didn’t do that especially well last Saturday in a 72-52 loss to Dayton, also at home.
“We had to come out in the first few minutes (of the second half) and punch them in the mouth,” said Williams, who recorded his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Williams was one of three Dukes to score in double digits, led by Spears (18). Kevin Easley added 14 and Leon Ayers III nine. Those four players scored every point. Johnson started, and four other players came off the bench — none of them scored.
Dambrot was encouraged with how Spears played, but his thoughts leaned toward what he did when he wasn’t shooting. Spears dished out six assists, one short of his season high.
“I have unbelievably high expectations for him, and I’m going to beat him up until he becomes what he should be,” Dambrot said.
Then, Dambrot realized that Spears is only a freshman, and he amended his thought. “He is what he should be, but he’s not what he can be.
“I thought that was the best he played trying to get people involved. Until he does that every single night, we’re going to have our struggles.
“He’s got a lot of ability. He’s got a big-time brain. He’s got to get tougher. He’s got to get in better condition. He’s got to bring it every single day, but he’s got a boatload of ability. He’s got to do things when it matters, but he has to do it every day.”
Dambrot called Spears “a good piece to build around.”
“But we have a lot of good pieces to build around. We have to keep recruiting hard and keep adding to what we have.”