Second-half surge leads Duquesne to 75-63 victory against La Salle

After Duquesne’s 75-63 victory Wednesday night against La Salle, coach Keith Dambrot opened the door to his team’s locker room.

Not literally, but his postgame remarks offered insight into how the Dukes rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to begin the second half on a game-deciding 17-4 run.

Was there a fiery speech from the Duquesne head coach? Not really. After 26 seasons, Dambrot knows a better way.

“This year, for the most part, I go to the bathroom (at halftime), and Dru (Joyce, Dukes assistant) cusses them out,” Dambrot said. “Then, I come in calm.”

Actually, Dambrot had a serious message to deliver, and it hit home with his players.

“We just told them, ‘You’re either going to guard and share the ball, or you’re not going to play.’ That’s all.

“Everybody thinks we made all these adjustments and this and that and the other. We have to defend, and we have to share the ball. It’s not rocket science. It’s simple.

“When we’ve defended, we’ve won. When we get assists, we win. When we don’t defend and don’t get assists, we lose.”

That pretty much told the story of Duquesne’s eighth victory in its past 11 games after an 0-5 start to its Atlantic 10 schedule.

Duquesne (17-11, 7-8) recorded 19 assists on 30 made baskets, shot 56.7% in the second half (17 of 30) and never allowed La Salle (14-15, 5-11) to get closer than six points after the Dukes’ initial rally after intermission.

Most of the offensive surge can be tied to the connection guard Jimmy Clark has with his teammates, on this night, especially, 6-foot-10 forward Dusan Mahorcic.

Clark scored 22 points with eight assists, and Mahorcic, who didn’t start, added 13 points and an apology.

“I told him, ‘Look for me,’ ” Mahorcic said. “I know he needs assists. I’m going to get you (assists).”

Except when he accepted a pass from Clark and missed a dunk.

“I should have given Jimmy his ninth assist. My bad, brother,” Mahorcic said, putting his arm around his teammate during the postgame news conference.

Mahorcic, a transfer from N.C. State, is fighting back from two serious knee injuries, and he said he is only about 80-85% recovered.

“I’m trying to push myself as much as I can,” he said. “I knew this was going to be a rebuild year for me, moving, jumping. My game is on the incline. I’m trying to give this team as much as I can.”

Dambrot appreciates the effort, beyond the obvious scoring punch.

“I thought he was much better defensively,” Dambrot said. “That’s a serious injury that happened twice. It’s amazing that he was able to come back. It’s a testament to his work ethic, his ability to overcome pain. You can see he’s moving better.”

Dambrot likes to push his best players in an attempt to help them reach their full potential. Clark fits into that category.

“If you believe somebody should be this,” the coach said, raising his hand, “and they’re only playing here (lowering it), it’s your obligation to make them try to play at that level. Or you’re really cheating them.”

Dambrot wasn’t happy with his team’s performance in the second half, but he said the defense improved after halftime.

“We tried harder,” he said of a defensive effort that limited La Salle to only 10 field goals in the final 20 minutes. “If you care about winning, you’re going to defend on every possession.”

The game matched two long-time coaching veterans against each other, with Dambrot getting the best of La Salle’s Fran Dunphy, who is in his 32nd season leading three Philadelphia teams — Penn, Temple and La Salle for two seasons.

The two men have coached a combined 58 seasons, with a total of 1,130 victories, 521 from Dambrot.

“He’s a better human being than he is a coach, which tells you how good a person he is,” Dambrot said of Dunphy. “When you play against him, you have so much respect for him. You look at his record over all the years, he’s just an unbelievable coach. He’s got a great temperament, smart, caring.”

Both men have plenty of work to do to get their teams ready for the A-10 Tournament that starts in two weeks.

Asked if the Dukes are playing their best basketball now, Dambrot said, “We didn’t play very good the second half at Fordham (last Friday). Over the past 11 games, we’ve been pretty competitive. We still have issues we have to deal with when new things appear on the court that we haven’t seen.”

But his bottom line is this: “We’re certainly capable,” he said.