League-leading Davidson extends Duquesne's losing streak to 10

Duquesne basketball coach Keith Dambrot — his team mired in a long losing streak — isn’t planning any new wrinkles just now. There’s no time, he said, with a schedule crammed with four games in eight days.

“We just have to keep getting at it,” Dambrot said Monday night after his Dukes fell for the 10th time in a row, 72-61, to Davidson at Belk Arena in Davidson, N.C.

“We play again Wednesday, and we won’t get home (Tuesday morning) until what, 2:30? You can’t really do anything Tuesday. We played Saturday, and then we came here, so we couldn’t do anything Sunday. There’s no time to put in any new wrinkles. We’re just trying to survive.”

Monday’s game was rescheduled from an earlier date when the game was postponed because of covid-19 restrictions.

Duquesne hosts George Washington on Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse then travels to St. Bonaventure for a Saturday night game. The Dukes were coming off an uninspired 65-54 home loss to Fordham on Saturday.

Duquesne (6-17, 1-10) dug a deep, early hole and couldn’t recover against league-leading Davidson.

Foster Loyer scored 24 points, and Hyunjung Lee added 20 to lead the Wildcats (21-4, 11-2), who extended their lead in the Atlantic 10 to 1 1/2 games.

Davidson jumped to a 20-4 lead and enjoyed its largest margin at 47-30 after settling for a 39-30 halftime lead. The Wildcats shot 58.3 % in the first 20 minutes, converting 4 of 9 3-point shots.

“We just haven’t guarded all year like we’ve done in the past,” Dambrot said. “And the one thing about us, we’re consistently inconsistent. We try hard, but there’s just too many bad shot selections, too many bad choices.”

Davidson led, 57-42, on a three-point play by Sam Mennenga with 12 minutes, 3 seconds left before Duquesne outscored the Wildcats, 17-8, to close within 65-59 with 3:31 remaining on a driving layup by Primo Spears, who led the Dukes with 20 points off the bench.

It was as close as Duquesne got as Davidson answered by scoring the next four points to go up 69-59 with 1:53 to go.

Jackie Johnson III scored all his 14 points in the second half, and Kevin Easley Jr. added 12 points and secured a team-high seven rebounds for Duquesne.

Michael Jones added 10 points and Luka Brajkovic grabbed a game-high 11 boards for Davidson, which shot 46.3 % (25 for 54). Duquesne shot 41.4 % (24 for 58) and held a slim 33-32 edge in rebounding.