No moral victories for Duquesne in close loss to No. 7 Dayton

“I’m never going to be happy when fans are happy with a loss at home,” he said. “In order for us to take the next step, we can’t lose to Dayton at home. I don’t care if they’re No. 7 in the country.

“Just because you play close doesn’t mean you’re ready to take the next step,” said Dambrot, hired two years ago to win championships (not lose three times in one week’s time). “We played close, but what does that mean? We’ll find out the next game and the next game and the next game.”

The dilemma facing Dambrot before the Dukes meet La Salle on Sunday is this:

Does he congratulate his players for the comeback against one of the nation’s top teams? Or, does he work them harder in practice so the next time, they finish the job?

“How do you get guys to be emotionally engaged (for the entire game)? Do you brow-beat them into it? Do you massage them into it?” he asked.

Junior center Michael Hughes might have the answer. Hughes didn’t start for the first time this season, but he still led the team with 19 points in 31 minutes.

“I like Mike Hughes and my obligation is to make sure I’m a good parent,” Dambrot said, explaining Hughes’ brief benching. “This is more than basketball.”

But Hughes also grabbed six offensive rebounds and made four steals. He seemed to indicate he wouldn’t mind a little brow-beating.

“Take it to the drawing board, practice harder than we ever have before and finish out this thing and try to make it special,” he said.

Dambrot wasn’t totally displeased with the game, pointing out his team’s fight and admitting his team “showed what we’re capable of.”

“You have to give our guys credit,” he said. “We got smacked in the mouth, knocked down, wobbled 35 times and then came back and made it a game. Which after what they’ve been through (back-to-back losses at Rhode Island and Massachusetts), you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Marcus Weathers, who scored 17 points with eight rebounds, gave credit to backup guard Tavian Dunn-Martin, who added 14 points with four 3-pointers.

“He gave us great energy,” Weathers said. “He came into the huddle really fired up. He was telling everybody in huddle we weren’t going to lose this game by 20 points. We were just going to go out fighting, and we were going to live with the end result.”

Duquesne’s fight was missing early in the second half when the Dukes went from an eight-point halftime deficit to 19 in the hole in eight minutes.

“From the jump in the second half, we should have been ready,” Weathers said. “I couldn’t even tell you why we started off so slow. It just happened.”

Part of the reason was the Dukes had no answer for Dayton’s 6-foot-9, 220-pound sophomore Obi Toppin, who recorded a double-double with 22 points, eight rebounds and four dunks. Projected to be a first-round NBA Draft choice this year, he was a dominant force for much of the game. He hit two crucial free throws with 15 seconds left to seal Dayton’s 10th consecutive victory.

But he also committed five of Dayton’s 17 turnovers and couldn’t prevent Duquesne from grabbing 15 offensive rebounds.

That’s the part Dambrot liked.

“We have enough to be good on certain nights,” he said.

But do they have enough to make a run through the postseason?

“We have enough toughness and enough edge and enough size that if we just get a little more consistent, it could be this year,” he said.

“Really, that’s on me. “We have to practice better. We have to be more consistent. We showed what we have to do to have success. We just have to improve. That’s all. Part of that is being less emotional and more mature.”

Dambrot praised Dayton (19-2, 8-0) for having players who are “consistently mature.”

“When we get to that point, we’ll be ready to win championships.”