Keith Dambrot, Duquesne’s 60-year-old coach, has been in too many games (672 in 21 seasons) to be fooled by something as unimportant as January’s conference standings.

So when reporters and TV cameras arrived for practice Wednesday to chronicle the good news on the Bluff — the third-place Dukes are 13-5 and 4-1 in the Atlantic 10 — he spoke the truth about his team.

He loves the fight in his players and their ability to survive in close games, but the journey has just begun. It resumes at 8 p.m. Wednesday when Duquesne welcomes first-place Saint Louis (14-4, 5-0) to Palumbo Center.

“We have to give up fewer easy baskets or we’re going to be average,” Dambrot said. “You can be fooled by 4-1, but I’m not. We have to do a better job at the defensive end, take better care of the basketball.”

The Dukes, who are chasing victory No. 1,400 in 103 seasons of basketball, have a 7-2 record in games decided by six points or fewer. But they have allowed an average of 85.2 points in four of those games. Even when the Dukes won 91-85 at George Washington on Sunday, they needed overtime to do it after jumping to a 20-2 lead.

“I didn’t have any gray hair when I got here, and I didn’t have this bald spot,” Dambrot said. “I don’t really like (close games). Every game is coming down to the last possession. We have to be more consistent throughout, and it won’t come down to the last possession and we have to make more shots. Our inability to pop-pop-pop has not allowed us to get away from many people.

“Mike Hughes was terrific (a near triple-double with 21 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks), but he made seven turnovers. We can’t do that if we’re really going to be as good as we can be.”

Nonetheless, Dambrot likes how his team is growing up. The play that sent the GW game into overtime is a good example, he said.

With 20 seconds left, freshman point guard Sincere Carry drove for the basket.

“He could have forced the action,” Dambrot said, “but he trusted his teammates, he kicked back to Tavian (Dunn-Martin), who could have shot the 3, but he trusted his teammate and drove the gap and threw to Mike Hughes (who scored to tie the game).

“That was a mature basketball play that usually young teams don’t make. We showed tremendous, terrific discipline on that play.”

Carry has been a major reason the Dukes have won four in a row. A fifth would be the longest A-10 winning streak in eight years.

“He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever had,” Dambrot said. “He’s not a big talker. He’s a quiet, introverted guy. We’re working on that.

“The guys respect him. They trust him. They know he’s tough as nails. He’s well beyond his years, and he’s going to get better, too. He puts a lot of time into it.”

Carry is fifth in the nation in steals (50, 2.78 average) and threatening Norm Nixon’s per-game school record for assists. Nixon averaged six in 1974 and ‘76, and Carry is averaging 5.78.

Some of Carry’s assists go to Frankie Hughes, who is leading the team with 35 3-pointers. Dambrot likes his attitude, too.

“(He) has made some big shots for us the last couple games,” the coach said, “partly because he’s fresh, but partly because he’s got that ‘I’m-good’ attitude.

“He can miss 100 in a row, and he still thinks the rim’s messed up.”

Duquesne will need superior efforts from its best players to beat the Billikens, who received three voting points in the Associated Press poll this week and are 10-2 since losing to Pitt, 75-73, on Nov. 21.

“They’re like warriors,” Michael Hughes said.

Added Dambrot: “They’re going to try to punch us in the mouth, the stomach, the back of the head — not literally, figuratively. We just have to match their toughness.”

Saint Louis was picked to win the A-10, and Duquesne was chosen 11th. Dambrot lists the Billikens among the best teams in the league, including VCU (Saturday’s opponent), Davidson and George Mason.

But he adds, “I don’t think they’re that much better than anybody else. They have acne, too. We all do.”

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.

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