Duquesne MBB’s Early Shooting Woes Too Much To Overcome

Some early shooting woes set the Duquesne Men’s Basketball Team back and it was unable to fully recover, falling 73-68 on the road Wednesday night at Richmond.

Richmond has been a challenging place for the Dukes to win as evidenced by one victory in the Robins Center in now 14 tries since 2002.

“I didn’t think anything was short of effort or energy, I did think we were a little bit shellshocked in the beginning, just didn’t have the right mindset,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III determined. “We got down early and things weren’t going our way, and we had to snap back, because that’s the game of basketball. We had to push through that, I thought we closed the first half pretty well. In general, we forced turnovers, so we got some stops, but I don’t think they missed much of anything. A couple of prayers went up in the air and I’m sure they’re feeling probably so. You’ve got to regroup and move on.”

This setback is Duquesne’s fifth in a row, three of which have been by two possessions or less.

Duquesne (9-14/4-6 Atlantic 10) was paced by Maximus Edwards’s 21 points in 26 minutes. Edwards was 8-for-10 from the field, burying four three-point shots in finishing a point shy of matching his season high.

“Our bench has been strong all season,” stated Joyce. “We bring starters off our bench, and I thought he was pretty good tonight. Max he’s had some tough games in there and got off to probably one of the toughest starts of his career earlier in the season and I think he’s starting to find his groove. The more patience he has, he did a tremendous job of showing some patience and found some gaps and open looks. He’s a shot maker, he’s proven that.”

Another pair of Duquesne guards posted double-digit points with Tre Dinkins III netting 17 and Kareem Rozier 10. Rozier also set a career high with his five steals.

Duquesne’s bench outscored Richmond 43-24.

Richmond (8-15/3-7 A-10) was led by Jason Roche’s 14 points, while Dusan Neskovic’s 13 points included timely free throws at the end of the game.

The Spiders shot 61% from the field.

A 2-for-12 start from the field put Duquesne in an early 17-6 hole as a Richmond team which entered play on a seven-game losing streak, the last of which by 41 points, dictated play.

Duquesne’s first basket of the contest came 3:22 in the contest, while a 4:19 scoreless mark allowed the Spiders to take control.

An Edwards three pointer late in the first half cut what was an 11-point deficit to five. Richmond would restore this back to double digits, before the Dukes scored the last four points of the first half making it 33-27 Spiders at the half.

A timely 7-0 Richmond run early in the second, culminating in a Neskovic three-point basket, placed the hosts up by 13 points.

It was the same deficit Duquesne faced with 3:27 remaining in regulation.

Dinkins started the comeback with a three-point make from a Jakub Necas pass, beginning a 9-0 run as Duquesne increased defensive pressure off its made shots.

While Richmond sank its free throws, the Dukes remained in the fight and a Dinkins triple had them within three points with 18 seconds to play.

“I thought we were able to turn some pressure up, we turned them over and got some easy ones,” Joyce explained. “I liked our matchups for a while, we went smaller, tried to spread them. Eventually they adjusted towards the last two minutes and matched up pretty much guard for guard. We made shots and pressed; it was nothing overly strategic.”

Neskovic then made a pair of free throws and Duquesne came up empty securing defeat.

Duquesne will next host Loyola Chicago for a Saturday contest on CBS Sports Network slated for a 6 p.m. tip.