Duquesne displays effort, but fades late in loss at St. Joseph's

Duquesne’s 72-61 loss to St. Joseph’s on Wednesday night offered evidence of the players’ effort, but it also showed the Dukes’ rebuilt lineup has a long way to go before it can contend in the Atlantic 10.

“We’re just not cohesive enough as a group, physically, mentally and relationship-wise,” coach Keith Dambrot said.

The Dukes struggled in the first half and trailed 36-20 with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left before intermission. Even Primo Spears’ 3-point buzzer-beater offered little hope. St. Joseph’s still took a 38-27 lead into the break.

But Duquesne seized control of the game early in the second half, stringing together a 26-7 run to take a 46-43 lead with 13:24 left.

It turned out to be too much time. St. Joseph’s regained control, the Dukes were a bit fatigued, according to their coach, and the ending was devoid of any drama.

Duquesne (6-11, 1-4 Atlantic 10) has lost four games in a row after a three-game winning streak. St. Joseph’s (9-10, 2-5) won for only the second time in its past seven games.

“I thought we made a good comeback,” Dambrot said. “We haven’t shown we can consistently close anything, though. You can’t feel too good about yourself until you can consistently close something.

”We died on the vine again. I’m disappointed we didn’t finish the job. Just have to do better. At times, we guard really well and other times we don’t guard at all. At times, we really move the ball and other times we don’t move the ball at all.”

Freshman guard Jackie Johnson III led the Dukes with 19 points, including 10 in the first eight minutes of the second half. Spears added 12 and Leon Ayers III 11.

Tre Williams and Kevin Easley, who often supply Duquesne’s muscle in the paint, scosred nine and six points, respectively.

“I thought Easley played great until he tired a little bit. We had to take him out,” Dambrot said. “Tre tried hard, but had a rough game, didn’t catch the ball, missed one around the rim, missed two free throws. One thing about him, he’s going to always try to do the right thing. He just had a rough first half.”

After the Dukes took their three-point lead, the teams took turns grabbing the lead, but St. Joseph’s ended up outscoring Duquesne 29-15.

“We got in 4 or 5 feet from the rim and didn’t finish some (shots),” Dambrot said. “We had some good shots that didn’t go in.”

St. Joseph’s was in complete control at the end. The Hawks did much of their scoring from beyond the 3-point arc, hitting 12 of 26. Overall, the Hawks shot 45.8% from the field (27 of 59).

All five St. Joseph’s starters scored in double digits, led by Jordan Hall with 18. Taylor Funk, Cameron Brown and Erik Reynolds II each had 13, and Ejike Obinna added 12.

“We kind of lost our mental toughness, our will to win, kind of wilted,” the coach said.