Duquesne Blows Late Lead, Falls to Richmond, 63-61

The Duquesne Men’s Basketball Team led for more than 33 minutes of Tuesday night’s contest against Richmond, but a late run by the visiting Spiders allowed them to triumph 63-61 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Duquesne (9-7/0-4 Atlantic 10) saw Jimmy Clark III score 16 points, while David Dixon added 12 points. The Dukes bench outscored their opponent by seven.

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Richmond (12-5/4-0 A-10) was paced by Neal Quinn’s 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Quinn was one four Spiders to achieve double figures as he was joined by Dji Bailey (12), Jason Roche (11) and Jordan King (10).

Duquesne was without Dae Dae Grant in this contest as PSN found out through multiple sources that he was in concussion protocol. As a result, Jake DiMichele earned his first career start. Dusan Mahorcic also earned his first start in a Duquesne uniform.

Richmond opened play by making its first three shots from the field, before the Dukes got their footing.

Given Grant’s role in the offense, Duquesne played more inside in the first half with 21 of the team’s 29 shots coming from two-point range.

As a result, there were far most post touches and that was used early on as it seized control with a 7-0 run, with the Spiders being held off the scoreboard for three minutes.

When Duquesne did fire from three-point range early on, it was in flow and allowed for second-chance opportunities to be had.

Following the second media stoppage of the opening half, Duquesne went dry from three-point land, with an inability to hit from beyond the arc for the final 11:12 of the period.

This made inside play even more pivotal and true to the team’s words after Friday’s loss, it hunted energy generated behaviors in building an advantage.

Additionally, Kareem Rozier was assigned to King, Richmond’s leading scorer and held him to four first-half points as he struggled to get into a rhythm and Quinn, the Spiders main post option had foul trouble and did not play for much of the half.

At halftime, Duquesne was in front 33-28.

Both King and Quinn got into a better rhythm in the second half as Richmond pushed the lead. The Spiders tied the contest as the bench got involved, but Duquesne recovered to retain control of the contest.

The Spiders trailed by three heading into a media stoppage and coming out of the break put in a trap, which proved unsuccessful as Fousseyni Drame drained a corner three-point basket and created some separation.

Richmond battled back late to cut the deficit to two points. With Dixon trapped, Duquesne tried to call timeout, which was granted by official Matt Potter, but a lack of possession led to an official huddle that ruled inadvertent whistle.

The Spiders then inbounded and Rozier was called for a foul making an already frustrated Dambrot irate. He could only watch as Richmond tied the game.

Both teams made a basket and then Clark called his own number early in the shot clock, missing a point-blank triple.

Following a full timeout, Richmond ran a play with Bailey being able to drive the hoop and make a basket.

Clark drew a foul and got to the line, where he missed the first free throw and then unsuccessfully intentionally missed the second.

The Dukes had one final chance when Isaiah Bigelow missed a one-in-one, but Clark’s halfcourt heave fell off the mark.

In total it was a 12-2 Richmond run in the final 5:03 of game action.

Duquesne will next take to the road for a 2:30 p.m. tilt Saturday against Saint Joseph’s which will air on USA Network.