Duquesne With Impressive 85-80 Win Over Colgate

Once again, Duquesne Men’s Basketball Coach Keith Dambrot made his annual trip to Akron and the team emerged victorious besting Colgate 85-80 Friday evening at LeBron James Arena.

“That finish got a little wild there,” associate head coach Dru Joyce III told the Duquesne radio broadcast following the win. “Not the way we would have liked to manage a lead, but we made our free throws down the stretch. When we needed a stop we finally got one. Overall, I’m proud of our guys, that’s a championship team we played against tonight.”

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Dae Dae Grant led all scorers with 24 points, 17 of which were scored in the first half. Grant was 7-for-12 from the field and amassed five three-point baskets in his 37 minutes of work.

Tre Williams scored a season high 15 points on a perfect seven-for-seven outing from the field, while his 29 minutes were far and away the most he has had in the 2022-23 campaign. Williams added seven rebounds as well.

Tevin Brewer scored 14 points and recorded six assists in his first start of the season, as he replaced Quincy McGriff in the Dukes opening five, a change which appeared to be hinted at during the second half of Monday night’s game against South Carolina State.

Austin Rotroff put in a 10-point six-rebound effort in 20 minutes.

Colgate (3-2) was led by Ryan Moffatt’s 21-point, seven-rebound performance, while teammate Oliver Lynch-Daniels added 17 points of his own. Keegan Records scored 13 points and the team’s leading scorer Tucker Richardson (21.5 ppg) was held to 10 points and nine assists.

Both teams started off scoring at a high level as Grant went to work from three-point range burying three trifectas. Colgate meanwhile were able to find each other early and often assisting on 10 of its first 11 made baskets.

Given how much both teams were scoring, Duquesne defensively decided to shy away from the full-court trap in order to reduce the possibility of easier baskets.

After leading by three points at the first media timeout, Duquesne had to endure a nearly three-minute scoreless streak, which Kareem Rozier helped snap the Dukes out of with two consecutive three-point baskets.

Defensively, Duquesne (3-1) settled back into principles, changing looks to throw Colgate off guard and it worked for the next eight minutes with the Raiders shooting 33.3% from the field.

Brewer then matched Rozier’s shot making from deep with two triples of his own, placing Duquesne in the lead by double digits for the first time.

Duquesne led Colgate 48-34 at halftime.

By no means was Colgate deterred because of this deficit. Coming off a road win at Syracuse, the Raiders started the second half on a 21-7 run, tying the game at 55.

Duquesne had to regroup and did so with post touches.

Rotroff had two dunks and it opened a stretch of 11 consecutive points accounted for by Duquesne post players.

This would be part of a 17-4 Dukes run in which they made nine of 10 shots from the field, restoring the 14-point halftime advantage.

Colgate had one last run riding a 15-3 advantage to cut the Duquesne advantage back to two points with 28.3 seconds remaining, but the Dukes regrouped at the free-throw line to secure the victory.

Duquesne was playing a bit shorthanded in this one. as according to a university spokesperson, R.J. Gunn did not appear in uniform as his left foot is in a boot, the injury is unrelated to last year’s ankle injury since it was his right foot which was injured last season.

Additionally, Kevin Easley did not make the trip as he is currently suspended due to a violation of team rules.

Joe Reece also appeared to injure his ankle very early on in the second half. Dambrot was previously concerned about Reece’s health following the Kentucky loss, though he started against South Carolina State.

Duquesne will look to regroup on the injury front as it next hosts North Florida Monday at 7 p.m. as part of the Tribute Classic. This is the third and final contest associated with the event.