Duquesne Travels to take on Rival No. 16 Dayton

Duquesne has played some of their best basketball of the season over these past few weeks and will need to continue that trend as they take on No. 16 Dayton on the road on Tuesday.

Duquesne Outlook

Duquesne has won five of their past six games, including four of their past five in conference play. They defeated rivals St. Bonaventure on Jan. 23 and Fordham on Jan. 26,  and non-conference opponent Chicago State on Jan. 31, all at home, as well as Rhode Island on Feb. 3 on the road.

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The Dukes also defeated the Bonnies in their previous contest, 75-69, in central upstate New York on Saturday. The win for the Dukes completed the season double over their rival to the north, the first time doing so in a season since 2008-09.

Graduate student forward Fousseyni Drame led the Dukes with 16 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double in the victory. Senior guard Jimmy Clark III fouled out, but scored 15 points and led the Dukes with a team-high eight assists.

Duquesne is now 14-9 overall and 4-6 in the A-10 after starting the 0-5 in A-10 play, giving themselves new meaning to the season ahead of the final stretch prior to the A-10 Tournament in March.

Duquesne vs. Dayton History

With the Atlantic-10 primarily made-up of teams on the East Coast, Duquesne and Dayton join other schools like Loyola Chicago and Saint Louis, that lie outside of that immediate area.

Dayton holds a 62-25 record all-time over Duquesne, 40-11 in the A-10 and 37-6 at home. They have also won the past four matches and 10 out of 12 since Keith Dambrot took over Duquesne in 2017. which includes a six game winning streak from 2018-21. Dambrot has both of his wins at home, in his first meeting with Dayton in 2017 and then in 2021, the first ever game in UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The Flyers defeated the Dukes back on Jan. 12 in front of a sold out UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, 72-62. The Dukes would keep it close through the first part of the second half, 45-41 with about 10 minutes remaining, but the Flyers broke out on a 16-6 run to get the victory.

Dambrot is also 0-4 against ranked opponents since taking over Duquesne in 2017, with the last game a 77-52 loss to then ranked No. 4 Kentucky on Nov. 11, 2022. Duquesne lost to a great Dayton team twice in early 2020, who had Naismith College Player of the Year in forward Obi Toppin, as they came in ranked in the top 10 both times.

Duquesne’s last win over a ranked team came against No. 10 Saint Louis on the road on Feb. 27, 2014. A win against a ranked Dayton team at home would be amazing, but not something that will come easy at all.

Dayton Outlook

Dayton come into this matchup 19-4 overall, 9-2 in A-10 play and the No. 16 ranked team in the latest AP poll.

Since defeating Duquesne a month ago, Dayton has gone 6-2 in its past eight games. Both of their losses have come on the road to Richmond on Jan. 27, 69-64 and their last game against VCU last Friday, 49-47, both in the city of Richmond, Va. They defeated Saint Louis, URI, George Washington and St. Bonaventure at home, as well as La Salle and Saint Joseph’s on the road.

Flyers junior forward DaRon Holmes II continues to show why he is one of the best players in the country, with great play again the season. He leads the A-10 with 19.4 points per game, ranks tied for No. 3 with 2.2 blocks per game, No. 3 with 7.7 rebounds per game and No. 8 shooting 54.3 from the field goal. 

Fellow junior forward in Nate Santos is player who has had a major impact this season for the Flyers. Hardly playing at Pitt the past two seasons, Santos has emerged as one of the most surprising performers in the A-10 so far.

He ranks No. 6 in the conference shooting 43.0% from 3-point range and No. 16 shooting 49.0% from the field, while his 6.6 rebounds per game is 11th best as well.

Dayton shoots 39.5% from 3-point range and averages 9.3 makes from behind the arc per game, both best and second best in the A-10, respectively.

Junior guard Koby Brea, along with Santos, is another reason why the Flyers excel from deep. He leads the Atlantic-10 shooting 47.8% from the perimeter and ranks tied for No. 2 averaging 2.7 3-pointers per game. He is also No. 14 in the A-10 shooting 49.7% from the field.

The shooting from all of these players makes it no surprise that the Flyers lead the conference making 47.2% of their shots on average.

Both guards in junior Kobe Elvis and sophomore Javon Bennett play important roles in distribution for Dayton. Elvis ranks tied for No. 2 in the A-10 with a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio and his 3.6 assists per game rank tied for No. 11. Bennett, who transferred in from Merrimack out of the NEC, leads the A-10 with a 3-0 assist/turnover ratio and leads the team with 3.7 assists, tied for No. 9 in the conference.

Robert Morris transfer and junior guard Enoch Cheeks is one player who has starred for the Flyers defensively. He averages 1.2 steals per game, just behind Bennett who has 1.3, and makes 0.7 blocks per game, both ranking in the top 20 of the A-10, respectively.

Keys to Victory for Duquesne

Making sure to properly defend Holmes and prevent him from producing offensively is crucial for the Dukes if they are to pull off a victory on Tuesday. He dropped 33 points against the Dukes the last time out, shooting 12-for-18 from the floor, 3-for-5 from behind the arc and grabbing 12 rebounds for a double-double.

He has struggled mightily in these past two losses, scoring 12 points against VCU, while shooting 3-for-8 from the field and an horrific 5-for-13 from the foul line. He only scored nine points in the loss to Richmond, shooting 2-for-12 from the field and 2-for-9 from 3-point range.

Forwards like sophomore David Dixon, senior Tre Williams and graduate students in both Dusan Mahorcic and Drame must contain Holmes and keep him from contributing like he normally does.

Senior guards Dae Dae Grant and Clark both need to stay efficient this game offensively, while also working defensively to stop Brea, Elvis, Santos, Cheeks and Bennett from scoring in place of Holmes. Other guards in first-year/walk-on Jake DiMichele and sophomore Kareem Rozier both have to help Grant and Clark as well.

Duquesne has won many close games this season and has excelled in low scoring games, so making this a defensive battle might serve the road team best.

Dayton is also perfect at home this season, 11-0, and plays in front of an average crowd of a little more than 13,000. Duquesne has won its last two road games, including a sold out game last time out against St. Bonaventure. If there’s a time for Duquesne to get another big road win, it would come on Tuesday against Dayton.

Odds

Duquesne come in as heavy underdogs in this game, according to the bookies. BetRivers and FanDuel have them as a +8.5 point underdog, DraftKings has them at +9 and ESPNBet has them at +9.5. FanDuel and ESPNBet have the spread at over/under 136.5 points, while BetRivers and DraftKings have it at 136 points.

The money lines, or wager for the team to win all vary, with ESPNBet putting Duquesne at +350 and Dayton at -465, FanDuel putting Duquesne at +340 and Dayton at -450, BetRivers putting Duquesne at +320 and Dayton at -420 and DraftKings putting Duquesne at +360 and Dayton at -470.

How to Watch/Time

Duquesne will battle No. 16 Dayton starting a tip-off of 7:00 p.m. ESPN+ will stream the game, while Spectrum News 1 will broadcast the game on television for those in the Dayton area.