Duquesne men never trail, defeat La Salle in Philly

Duquesne reverted to a familiar playing style from last season’s Atlantic 10 championship team and won a men’s basketball game Wednesday night for just the second time on the road this season.

That’s right, it wasn’t pretty.

Taking a page from former coach Keith Dambrot’s guide to winning ugly, Tre Dinkins III produced his first double-double and Cam Crawford scored a game-high 15 points to lead Duquesne to a 67-62 victory over La Salle at John Glaser Arena in Philadelphia.

Dinkins finished with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 10 assists for the Dukes (12-16, 7-8), who improved to 2-7 on the road.

“Another good floor game from Tre. I loved his purpose and intent to (the defensive) side of the ball. It really set the tone for us,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said.

Crawford, who scored 11 of his points in the first half, shot 4 for 6 and added six rebounds for the Dukes.

The game was reminiscent of last season’s “mud wrestling” style that Dambrot relied on in leading Duquesne to its second A-10 championship and first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 years.

Joyce, who succeeded the retired Dambrot this season after serving two years as his associate head coach, said he hoped his players would embrace the victory no matter their role.

“It takes 40 minutes from everybody, absolutely every time,” said Joyce, who used 10 players — eight of whom played double-digit minutes — including junior Chabi Barre and sophomore Jakub Necas, both of whom returned from injuries.

Where one player struggled, Joyce said another stepped up.

“In order to beat a team, you’ve got to be able to celebrate your brothers,” Joyce said. “Even when things aren’t going right for you. You’ve just got to have that joy about you.”

On a night when La Salle honored legendary coach Fran Dunphy, who is set to retire at the end of the season, Duquesne never trailed but allowed the Explorers to close within one point on four occasions after the Dukes had built double-digit leads.

Duquesne led 53-40 on a basket by Kareem Rozier with 6 minutes, 19 seconds left before La Salle outscored the Dukes 16-4 to pull within 57-56 with 2:23 to go.

The Explorers couldn’t capitalize, though Duquesne never led by more than five points the rest of the way.

Eli Wilborn and Necas added 10 points apiece for Duquesne, which shot 52.2% overall but was just 5 for 20 (25.0%) from 3-point range after making two of its first three attempts during a 12-0 run to open the game.

The Dukes assisted on 18 of 24 field goals but committed 14 turnovers to La Salle’s 11.

The Explorers shot just 32.1% overall but stayed in the game by converting 23 of 28 free-throw attempts.

The 6-foot-8 Wilborn got a rare start and arguably played his best game of the season for Duquesne. He shot 5 for 7 and totaled four rebounds, two blocks, one assist and a steal.

“You can be disappointed if you didn’t play. I get that,” Joyce said. “I make a lot of calls and decisions. I’m OK. But we’ve always got to remember to celebrate each other. If your teammate went out and played his butt off, give him joy, give him love, because you’re going to want the same thing in return.”

Where Wilborn came through for Duquesne, 6-9 junior David Dixon struggled, playing just 10 minutes and finishing with three fouls and just two points, three rebounds and one block.

And there were similar examples involving others, Joyce said.

“Tonight was an occasion where Eli stepped up,” he said. “Dave usually closes games out for us, and he has all season. But tonight, Eli had it rolling and Dave was there to support him. That’s all you can ask for is guys staying bought-in and locked into the game and being willing to, even when they don’t have it going, make sure to give the right type of joy to their teammates.”

Corey McKeithan and Deuce Jones led La Salle (12-16, 4-11) with 14 points each. Daeshon Shepherd added 12 for the Explorers, who lost their sixth consecutive game.

Dunphy, who was coaching in his 1,000th college game, owns a 623-377 record in 33 seasons combined at three Philadelphia-based schools — Penn, Temple and La Salle.

His teams have made a total of 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, nine at Penn and eight at Temple.

Duquesne, with three regular-season games remaining, returns home for the annual Chuck Cooper Classic at 2 p.m. Saturday at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse against A-10 co-leader George Mason.

The Patriots moved into a first-place tie with VCU on Wednesday night by beating Fordham, 74-64.

Duquesne entertains VCU in its final home game Tuesday night before making a trip to Saint Louis on March 8 in advance of the A-10 Tournament, which will be held from March 12-15 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.