Davidson stretches Duquesne's losing streak to 13 games in a row

The night after former Duquesne point guard Sincere Carry scored 42 points for Kent State, the current Dukes lost their 13th game in a row Wednesday, 74-50, to Davidson.

“You don’t think having him would have helped us?” coach Keith Dambrot said.

Carry isn’t alone. Duquesne lost 11 players off last year’s team for a variety of reasons. Four are leading their new teams in scoring or rebounding:

• Carry, 18.5 points per game.

• Florida Gulf Coast’s Tavian Dunn-Martin, 20.9

• Western Michigan’s Lamar Norman Jr., 18.5.

• SMU’s Marcus Weathers, No. 1 in rebounding (7.1) and No. 2 in scoring (12.6).

Plus, Eric Williams is a key reserve at Oregon where he averages 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds. He left after the 2018-2019 season.

With the exception of Western Michigan, four of those teams are second, third or fourth in their league standings.

“You lose ‘em all at once, guys you invested a lot of time in, you pay the price,” Dambrot said.

The fifth-year Dukes coach mentioned those players Wednesday night during an 18-minute chat with reporters, but it was not meant to build an excuse for what has turned into a frustrating season. Dambrot was quick to point out the reality as he sees it.

“At the end of the day, our record (6-20, 1-13 Atlantic 10) means I haven’t done a very good job,” he said. “It’s my job to retain them.”

Dambrot admitted he “over-corrected” when he decided after last season to re-organize the roster.

“I still think I did the right thing by morals and ethics standards,” he said. “But I hurt myself and I hurt our school and I hurt our team. We had too much (bull) that went on and I had enough.”

But the other reality is that it’s difficult to win without enough quality players.

“Now, our talent level is not good, especially with the injuries,” he said.

Sophomore forward Tre Williams, who is second on the team in scoring and rebounding, suffered a leg injury with 1 minute, 2 seconds left in the first half Wednesday, and he was on the crutches the remainder of the game. Dambrot didn’t know the extent of the injury, but he doesn’t expect Williams to play again this season.

Duquesne trailed, 36-33, at halftime, but scored only 17 points on 23.1% shooting (6 of 26) in the second half. Williams, at 6-foot-7, is a huge loss, especially combined with previous season-ending injuries to Austin Rotroff (6-10) and R.J. Gunn (6-7).

“We have no chance once he gets hurt,” Dambrot said.

“It hurt when we lost Tre,” said sophomore forward Kevin Easley Jr., who led the Dukes with 16 points. “Kind of ran out of guys, got tired.”

Said Dambrot: “Emotionally, it was hard on us. I think all year has been emotionally hard on us. I feel like we’re a junior high team at times, we’re so small.

“We haven’t handled the adversity very well, me included. If you don’t handle adversity well, you’re never going to win.”

Played in front of a crowd of 1,461 at shiny, new UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (where the Dukes haven’t won since Dec. 11), the game represented Duquesne’s lowest scoring output of the season and the ninth time during the 13-game streak the team has failed to reach 60 points.

Big picture: The Dukes have lost 20 games for the first time since 2016-2017, the year before Dambrot arrived. Meanwhile, first-place Davidson (23-4, 13-2) stretched its lead in the conference standings to a full game over VCU and Dayton.

Aware of the need to have a good off-season, Dambrot has started sending assistants on recruiting trips on game days, calling it “prudent business.”

“You better do something to fix it. We all know how the transfer portal works. The way the new basketball is, there are going to be three or four guys who aren’t going to be back. Especially when you’re not playing very well, there’s more tendency for guys to leave. It certainly isn’t their fault. It’s my fault.

“Our talent level has to improve. By that I mean toughness, skill level, size, passing ability. We have to get better in all those areas. We have to continue to re-organize.”

Dambrot has started re-organizing already, even with three games remaining before the start of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on March 9.

Center Mounir Hima, a 6-11 freshman from Niger, made his first career start Wednesday and collected 10 rebounds, more than any player on either team.

“He’s the least of our worries,” Dambrot said. “We’re not winning nothing this year, anyway. It forces you to play him, and it’s good for him, which is good for us in the long term. Why not start him?”

Duquesne won 19 and 21 games in Dambrot’s second and third seasons on the job, and he knows rebuilding to that level will take time. He said the Duquesne administration has been supportive.

“I’m lucky because I work for good people,” he said. “I work for people who understand what I tried to do and they’ve been good with me.

“I think overall I’ve done a good job up until this year. But I’m paying the price this year. I don’t blame the Duquesne fans for being upset about it. I get it. It’s hard for me to watch, too, sometimes.”

Athletic director Dave Harper said before the game that in his talks with Dambrot, he has found they share a similar vision for the program.

“I wouldn’t liken it to a general manager/coach discussion,” Harper said. “But I would liken it to just aligning what the vision is. I’m never going to tell him to take or not take a player. That’s not my job.

“I think we both have a common vision on where we need to get this thing and we just have to execute.”