Duquesne Looks to Build Momentum with Home Test Against Saint Louis

Duquesne has a home test against Saint Louis on Tuesday, that they’ll hope to use going forward to build momentum heading into the postseason.

Duquesne Outlook

Duquesne is 15-10 overall and 5-7 in the Atlantic-10. After losing five straight games to open conference play, they’ve won six of their past eight games, including five of the last seven in the A-10.

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The Dukes handled the rival Saint Joseph’s Hawks Saturday afternoon at UPMC Cooper Field House, 66-56. Dukes sophomore forward David Dixon took advantage of Hawks redshirt first-year center Christ Essandoko’s absence, scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, leading the team in both categories for his first double-double.

The win for Duquesne led them to split their home-and-away series with St. Joe’s, where they lost on a last-second shot back in Philadelphia, Pa. on Jan. 20. They’ve also split their past four games, losing last Tuesday on the road to rival No. 16 Dayton and at home to Davidson on Feb. 7, while beating rival St. Bonaventure on Feb. 10.

These next few games will determine if the Dukes could potentially finish in the top four or not even get a first-round bye in the A-10 tournament.

Duquesne vs. Saint Louis History

Duquesne and Saint Louis have split the all-time series evenly, 17 wins each in the past 34 games. Duquesne is 4-4 under head coach Keith Dambrot, who took over prior to the 2017-18 season, but has lost their past two matchups the last two seasons. Duquesne does have an advantage in the series at home, 10-6.

Saint Louis Outlook

Saint Louis is a much-changed team from finishing last season 21-12 overall and 12-6 in the A-10, as they currently sit 9-16 overall and 2-10 in the A-10, the worst record in conference play.

Yuri Collins, who led Division I in assists the previous two seasons, graduated So is forward Francis Okoro and guard Javon Pickett off the bench.

One player who is still going strong for the Billikens is redshirt junior guard Gibson Jimmerson. He dominated the Dukes last season, scoring 28 points on 11-for-17 shooting en route to a 90-85 win at home last February.

He leads the team and is No. 14 in the A-10 scoring 14.4 points per game, while shooting 86.5% from the foul line and averaging 2.1 3-pointers per game, both top five marks in the conference.

Saint Louis junior guard Sincere Parker is playing some of the best basketball of his life recently. He scored more than 30 points each in the past three games, shooting 65.3% from the field, 12-for-18 from 3-point range and 21-for-24 from the free throw line, respectively.

They also have a solid post-presence in Georgetown transfer and junior forward Bradley Ezewiro. He is scoring 12.6 points and grabbing 6.1 rebounds per game, respectively since the NCAA granted him eligibility in mid-December.

Senior forward Terrence Hargrove Jr. makes for a good pairing, albeit small, frontcourt pairing for the Billikens, along with Ezewiro. Averaging 18.5 points these past two games, Hargrove will challenge the Dukes inside Tuesday night, and is also able to make it from behind the arc too.

Saint Louis is a solid offensive team, No. 4 in the conference averaging 75.3 points per game, No. 5 shooting 36.5% from 3-point range and No. 4 shooting 74.3% from the foul line.

Sophomore guard Larry Hughes II, son of former NBA guard Larry Hughes, is a threat from behind the arc, but also leads the Billikens with 1.4 steals per game.

First-year guard Cian Medley is the main distributor for Saint Louis, with 3.6 assists per game and a 1.7 assist/turnover ratio.

Keys to Victory for Duquesne

The issue for the Billikens this season is their defensive performances, which they have given up 77.5 points per game, second worst in the Atlantic-10. They have also given up 80 points or more in conference play eight out of the 12 games they’ve played, including the past three games.

While Duquesne isn’t the greatest offensive team themselves, they do play great defensively and use that to their advantage, ranking No. 4 in the A-10 with 7.16 steals per game and No. 5 in blocked shots, 4.40 per game. They have chances to take advantage of Saint Louis in terms of turnovers, as the road team has the worst turnover margin in conference play, -4.50, and second worst assist/turnover ratio, 0.93.

Senior guard Jimmy Clark III ranks tied for first in the conference with 2.1 steals per game and will need to do well guarding Timmerson and Parker. This goes for fellow guards in senior Dae Dae Grant, sophomore Kareem Rozier and first-year/walk-on Jake DiMichele.

The Dukes come into this contest as the best team defending 3-pointers in A-10 play, with opponents averaging 28.3% from behind the arc against them.

Dixon, along with forwards in graduate students Fousseyni Drame and Dusan Mahorcic, senior Tre Williams and others need to slow down Hargrove and Ezewiro as well. Doing so will lead to a solid win for the Dukes at home Tuesday night.

Odds

Duquesne come in heavily favored against Saint Louis, with ESPNBet, FanDuel and DraftKings putting them as 8.5-point favorites. All three have the spread around over/under 149/149.5 total points.

The money line, or wager placed on the team to win, varies slightly for each site. ESPNBet has Duquesne at -380, FanDuel has Duquesne at -385, with both sites placing Saint Louis at +300, while DraftKings has Duquesne at -395 and Saint Louis at +310.

How to Watch/Time

Duquesne will tip-off against Saint Louis at 7:00 p.m Tuesday night on ESPN+, with no television broadcast for this game. Tim Benz will serve as the play-by-play commentator and both Ellis Cannon and Noah Buono serving as color commentators.