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Duquesne's skid hits 12 after loss at St. Bonaventure

Dave Mackall
| Saturday, February 19, 2022 8:32 p.m.
Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Keith Dambrot’s Dukes lost their 12th consecutive game Saturday at St. Bonaventure.

Duquesne’s free fall in basketball has reached 12 consecutive losses, but coach Keith Dambrot insisted he is not going to stop searching for a successful formula.

“We’re just trying to find some guys who will compete and who care about winning and competing,” Dambrot said. “Even if they don’t win, we need people who care about it.”

Dambrot used his 10th different lineup and fourth in the past four games Saturday night against St. Bonaventure, but the results were the same since the Dukes’ last victory nearly six weeks ago.

Osun Osunniyi’s 18 points and 10 rebounds led the Atlantic 10 preseason favorite Bonnies to an 81-55 rout of the Dukes at Reilly Center in Olean, N.Y.

The 6-foot-10 Osunniyi converted all seven of his field-goal attempts while playing 23 minutes.

Duquesne (6-19, 1-12), which hasn’t won since beating Massachusetts on Jan. 8, was led by Leon Ayers III’s 12 points.

The Dukes’ latest starting lineup consisted of Kevin Easley Jr., Tre Williams, Tyson Acuff and true freshman guards Jackie Johnson III and Primo Spears.

When it was over, nine of the 10 players who saw action for Duquesne played in at least 10 minutes. No one played 30 minutes or more, except the 6-7 Williams, who finished with nine points on 3-of-10 shooting to go with four rebounds.

“There were some guys who competed,” Dambrot said. “There were some other guys who weren’t as engaged. For some of them, it’s really become a grind to lose as much as we’ve lost. It takes character to hang in there and compete.”

Jalen Adaway scored a team-high 21 points for St. Bonaventure, which won its fifth game in a row. The Bonnies (17-7, 9-4) shot 52.5 % (31 for 59) and outrebounded Duquesne, 42-25.

“We caught them playing at a high level, and we’re playing at our lowest,” Dambrot said. “They’re starting to play well now, but it shouldn’t be a 26-point game. We’ve just hit the wall, and now, it’s hard to rally them.”

The Dukes were never in the game after trailing by five points midway through the first half.

St. Bonaventure used a 14-2 run to build a 32-15 cushion with 2:20 left before intermission and led 39-22 at the break.

The Bonnies poured it on in the second half, scoring the first nine points, and led by as many as 36 at 69-33 on a basket by Dominick Welch with 8:03 remaining.

Welch added 16 points for St. Bonaventure, which swept the season series from Duquesne. The Bonnies beat the Dukes, 64-56, on Jan. 21 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The Dukes continued to struggle on offense, shooting 35.1%. They rank last in the A-10 in scoring (64.2 ppg).

Duquesne freshman center Mounir Hima established career highs in points (nine) and minutes played (15) off the bench, and freshman guard Mike Bekelja, who entered the game with nine points in his first 17 outings, scored five off the bench, one shy of his career high.

Duquesne’s starters combined to shoot 8 for 36.

Spears missed all nine of his field-goal attempts, while Easley, a TCU transfer, continued his struggles over the past two games, where he is just 1 for 19 after going 0 for 12 against George Washington on Wednesday and 1 for 7 against St. Bonaventure.

Duquesne returns to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse to play league-leading Davidson on Wednesday night in a rematch of the Wildcats’ 72-61 victory over the Dukes on Monday at Belk Arena in Davidson, N.C.


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