Duquesne men's basketball team loses 7th in row

Duquesne’s basketball woes just keep continuing.

Even without its leading scorer and rebounder, VCU survived the reeling Dukes’ challenge Saturday and handed them their seventh consecutive loss, a 71-62 decision at Siegel Center in Richmond, Va., behind Hason Ward’s 13 points and 10 rebounds.

“They tried hard,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said, referring to his players with a familiar refrain. “But when your line is fine, you can’t make mistakes because all it does it hurt you.”

Duquesne piled up 19 turnovers — two more than VCU (14-7, 7-3 Atlantic 10) and eight more than its season average — and a number came at critical points late with the Dukes within striking distance.

“Five of those were us stepping on the (out-of-bounds) line,” Dambrot said. “There’s no excuse for that.”

Tre Williams led Duquesne (6-14, 1-7) with a season-high 19 points. Primo Spears and Kevin Easley Jr. added 11 apiece for the Dukes, who haven’t won since a victory Jan. 8 at Massachusetts, a span of nearly a month.

“I thought the effort was pretty good today, but … too many minutes (played) for the guys in this group,” Dambrot said.

Continuing to play with a thin bench because of injuries to 6-foot-10 Austin Rotroff (stress fracture) and 6-7 R.J. Gunn Jr. (high ankle sprain), Dambrot was reluctant to lean on his other reserves, some with little college experience.

Freshman Jackie Johnson III was 0-for-6 shooting and did not score while playing 11 minutes, and graduate Davis Larson and 6-11 freshman Mounir Hima combined for just six minutes and also were scoreless.

Of the six remaining Duquesne players who saw action, four played at least 30 minutes, including freshman point guard Spears (38) and the 6-7 Williams (34), who shot 9 for 13 but managed just three rebounds.

“That’s too many minutes for those guys. We’re not naturally conditioned to play that many in a game,” Dambrot said.

Adrian Baldwin Jr. also scored 13 points for the Rams. KeSahwn Curry added 12, and Marcus Tsohonis finished with 11 for VCU, which was playing its second consecutive game without injured senior forward Vince Williams Jr. (calf strain), who leads them in scoring (12.9 ppg.) and rebounding (6.2 rpg.).

Williams Jr. was the latest player to be named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week.

VCU rebounded from its worst home loss in nearly 20 years — an 82-52 decision to Dayton on Thursday — but had to make 7 of 8 free throws in the final 2 minutes, including four by Curry, to secure the victory.

“Our consistency just isn’t that good,” Dambrot said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get from minute to minute. We just lack the confidence we need when it matters to make the plays.”

Duquesne enjoyed its largest lead of eight points (26-18) in the first half and trailed just once before intermission, where the Dukes held a 30-29 advantage.

But, as has been the case so often this season, they fell behind in the second half and couldn’t recover.

After Duquesne upped the lead to 40-35 on Tyson Acuff’s 3-point shot with 15:53 left, VCU used a 9-0 run to take a 44-40 lead and never fell behind again.

The Rams pushed their advantage to nine points before Spears scored twice and Williams followed with a basket to cut the Dukes’ deficit to 51-48 with 7:54 left.

But VCU scored the next five points to maintain a cushion and held on as Duquesne could get no closer than four points, the last time at 63-59 with 1 minute, 34 seconds left on 1 of 2 free throws by Leon Ayers III.

VCU shot 53.6 % in the second half and made 48.2 % (27 for 56) overall, and Duquesne managed just 23 for 62 (37.1 % overall). The Rams outscored the Dukes in the paint 42-26.

“Obviously, they’re finding ways to win, but they don’t score a lot, either,” Dambrot said of VCU. “We kept it close at the end and had our chances. We played like a young team.”

Duquesne is idle until a Wednesday trip to Dayton, which defeated the Dukes, 72-52, on Jan. 15 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in an outcome that is part of Duquesne’s current skid.