Duquesne rally falls short in loss to George Washington

Keith Dambrot walked into the interview room, sat down and issued himself a warning.

“I have to watch what I say because I’m really frustrated right now,” Duquesne’s coach said.

Frustration was the theme of Duquesne’s 70-67 loss to a sub-.500 George Washington team Wednesday night before a sparse crowd of 1,934 at PPG Paints Arena.

Dambrot looked like a coach who wouldn’t sleep well after the Dukes (18-7, 8-5 Atlantic 10) let victory slip away by shooting poorly, failing to guard the 3-point line and losing energy at various points throughout the game.

“We just looked like we were a half-step slow most of the night,” Dambrot said. “That’s the part that frustrated me.”

He was displeased by his team’s 3-point shooting (5 for 24) and a defense that allowed George Washington to make 25 of 52 shots (48.1 percent) and 9 of 20 from beyond the arc.

“(GW) played slow and scored 70 points, which is unacceptable, really,” Dambrot said.

“These kids now, they’re so offensive-oriented when you don’t make (shots), it deflates. You could tell. We didn’t have great defensive juice. We were just there, but we weren’t really there.”

Left unsaid was the fact that George Washington (12-14, 6-7) came into the game losers of three of their previous four games by margins of 22, 25 and 31 points.

George Washington led for more than half the game after Duquesne opened up a 20-11 lead in the first nine minutes.

“It was looking really good for us,” said forward Marcus Weathers, who scored 19 points. “We kind of died on the vine. We didn’t keep that same energy in the first half.”

Yet, the Dukes rallied with impressive energy after GW seized a 62-48 lead with 5 minutes, 5 seconds to play. A full-court press led to steals and quick Duquesne baskets.

Suddenly, the deficit was five, with 3:31 left.

But that’s when the Dukes allowed GW’s Armel Potter to hit a 3 late in the shot clock — only his eighth of the season in 30 attempts — to build the lead back to eight, 65-57.

“Potter’s not a great 3-shooter, but at that point, you better cover him at the 3 (line) late in the clock,” Dambrot said.

But to their credit, the Dukes kept fighting.

Point guard Sincere Carry led the charge with a traditional 3-point play, scoring in the paint, getting fouled and converting. He added a 3-point shot with 35 seconds remaining and the GW lead was down to 68-66.

“He’s got good attributes when his back’s against the wall,” Dambrot said of Carry, who finished with 17 points.

That set up the dramatic ending.

GW’s Jameer Nelson Jr. made one of two foul shots and Arnaldo Toro missed two more free throw tries. The lead was stuck at three, giving the Dukes a chance to send the game into overtime with 22 seconds left.

But GW guarded the 3-point line and time ticked away until Weathers finally drove down the lane, missed a layup and got fouled with 3.9 seconds to play.

“We practice late-game situations,” Dambrot said. “We just held it too long. ‘Just go.’

“I think sometimes guys think they have to shoot the 3. You don’t have to shoot the 3. You can get a quick 2. You can’t get to 3.9 seconds.”

Weathers made one, intentionally missed the second, but Toro grabbed the rebound and Duquesne’s fate was sealed.

“I tried to make it a reboundable ball,” Weathers said. “It just didn’t happen that way.”

Said Dambrot: “Just one of those nights where I’m ready to …”

That’s when he caught himself. “Never mind,” he said.

Next up for the Dukes are trips to Dayton (24-2), the No. 5 team in the nation, on Saturday and St. Bonaventure next week.

“I’m not so much frustrated for me, but I’m frustrated for our guys,” Dambrot said. “I’m frustrated for our fans, the Pittsburgh fans that want Duquesne to be good because we just haven’t quite been able to get over the hump.

“We’re close to being upper echelon. When you lose, you become average.

“We’ve shown we can be competitive. When you’re on the brink (of real success), ‘c’mon.’

“Or, at some point, maybe you’re just not good enough. You can’t cut it any other way. Either you win or you don’t win.

“At some point, can you kick somebody’s (behind)?

“We’ve made progress,” he said, “but it’s not fast enough for this old guy.”