G14 | DAVIDSON (6-6, 0-0) at DUQUESNE (11-2, 1-0)
Sun., Jan. 5 • 2:00 pm ET • Moon Township, Pa. • UPMC Events Center (4,000)

TELEVISION: NBCSN with Whit Watson & Ben Braun
RADIO: WJAS-AM 1320 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)
IN-GAME STATS: Sidearm

Duquesne (11-2, 1-0) extended its home win streak to six - despite having played at three different home venues - with a 73-59 Atlantic 10-opening win over Saint Louis on Thursday, looks to go 2-0 in conference play for just the eighth time in 43 A-10 seasons when it hosts Davidson (6-6, 0-0) on Sunday, Jan. 5 at 2:00 p.m. at UPMC Events Center on the campus of Robert Morris University (NBCSN). This is the second "home" game at RMU for Duquesne whose on-campus arena - UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse - is undergoing a season-long renovation. The nomadic Dukes have played more games in the Bahamas (3), Florida (2) and Ohio (2) than they have within Pittsburgh's city limits. DU played its opener vs. Princeton at PPG Paints Arena and four additional nonconference home games at La Roche University, located 10 miles north of DU's downtown campus.

TRENDING

• DU's 11-2 start is the school's best since 1971-72 (15-2).
• The Dukes have won six in a row at home while playing at three different venues (at PPG Paints Arena, at La Roche University and at Robert Morris University).
• The Dukes rank 9th nationally in blocks/g. (6.2) through Jan. 2.
• DU is the nation's 5th-best free throw shooting team at .793.
• The balanced Dukes have six players averaging between 8.9 and 14.5 points per game. Six players have either led, or tied for the team lead, in scoring and five have scored 20 or more in a game.
• DU, which is 3-2 when trailing at the half, is outscoring opponents 529-427 in the second 20 minutes.
• Junior Marcus Weathers has led the Dukes in scoring in each of the past five games. He is averaging 21.8 points and 9.0 rebounds on .736 shooting (39-of-53) over that span.
• Junior center Michael Hughes  ranks fifth nationally in block pct. (KenPom). His 40 total blocks rank 12th in Division I.
• Six-eleven grad transfer Baylee Steele is third on the team with 16 3-pointers (16-of-48, .333). He entered the season 2-of-11 from the arc in 68 career Division I games.
• Under Keith Dambrot, DU is: 37-3 when leading with 5:00 left ... 36-10 when scoring 70 or more points ... 31-3 when the first to 70 points in a game ... 28-7 when holding opponents under 70 (including 9-0 this year).
   

DUKES AND WILDCATS
Series Record: Davidson leads 7-0
At Pittsburgh: Davidson leads 3-0
At Davidson: Davidson leads 4-0
Neutral Site: 0-0
A-10 Regular Season: Davidson leads 7-0
A-10 Championship: 0-0
Dambrot vs. Davidson: 0-2

SERIES QUICK NOTES

• This is the eighth meeting between Duquesne and sixth-year Atlantic 10 member Davidson ... the Wildcats - who were a home-and-home opponent of the Dukes in each of their first two A-10 seasons - have won all seven series meetings ... this is the fourth year the two are facing each other once.
• In the last meeting at Pittsburgh (Feb. 24, 2018), freshman Kellan Grady scored 30 points and Peyton Aldridge added 17 and 10 rebounds to help Davidson to a 71-60 win. The Dukes and Wildcats finished with 22 field goals apiece. DU went 11-of-30 from 3-point to 9-of-20 for Davidson. The Wildcats outscored Duquesne 18-5 from the foul line. No current Dukes played in that game.
• Last year, in a game that featured 10 ties and 18 lead changes, Kellan Grady scored five of his team-high 17 points in the final 3:03 to help Davidson pull away for a 65-61 win at Belk Arena. Sincere Carry led Duquesne with 17 points and five assists.
• Davidson, which is 2-2 on the road, has been idle since a 76-71 loss at Vanderbilt on Dec. 30. The Wildcats, who were the preseason pick to finish third in the A-10, have four double-digit scorers led by Kellan Grady at 16.1 ppg. Grady and Jon Axel Gudmundsson (11.7 ppg.) were both named preseason First Team All-A-10.

WORTH NOTING

• The Dukes are in their third season under head coach Keith Dambrot. Dambrot, who inherited a 10-22 team in 2017-18, posted a 16-16 record in 2018 and guided a 2019 team - with a roster that saw 97 percent of its points come from freshmen and sophomores - to 19 wins (19-13) and a 10-8 Atlantic 10 finish (T6th). The Dukes, who were picked to finish 11th in last year's A-10 preseason poll, tied the school record for conference wins and posted the school's highest win total since 2011.
•  Duquesne opened the season with 10 consecutive wins - the school's best start since 1953-54 (22-0). Along the way, DU received a vote in both the Dec. 9 & 16 AP polls, marking the first time a Duquesne team received an AP vote since Feb. 7, 2011.
• The Dukes, who were picked to finish eighth in the 2019-20 Atlantic 10 preseason poll, have exceeded their preseason A-10 pick in each of their first two seasons under Dambrot. The 2018 team, picked to finish last, ended up tied for 10th. Last year DU, picked 11th, ended up tied for sixth. It was the first time since 2009 (picked 12th, finished tied for fifth) that a Duquesne team exceeded its preseason pick by five or more spots.
• DU's 10-0 start was the best since the 1953-54 team opened with 22-straight wins. Sid Dambrot, the father of DU head coach Keith Dambrot, was a senior guard on the '54 team which reached No. 1 in the AP poll. The 10-game win streak was the program's longest since Ron Everhart's Dukes reeled off 11 in a row from Dec. 31 to Feb. 2 in 2010-11.
• Duquesne was among others receiving votes in the Dec. 9 & 16 AP Top 25 polls (1 in each poll). It was the first time since 2011: Jan. 24 (1), Jan. 31 (15) & Feb. 7 (1), that DU received votes. DU's last AP poll appearance was at No. 20 on Feb. 8, 1972 (15-2).
• Duquesne has come back from double-digit deficits to win four times this season: -14 vs. Princeton, -12 vs. both Indiana State & Loyola Marymount and -11 vs. VMI. Dambrot's Dukes have erased a total of 12 double-digit deficits in the past two seasons.
• Lipscomb's 36 points in Duquesne's 58-36 Nov. 15 win, were the fewest by a DU opponent in 39 years (since a 34-33 NIT loss to Saint Peter's on 3/10/80).
• Duquesne went 3-0 in earning the Junkanoo Jam Championship on Nov. 21-24 in Bimini, Bahamas. It was DU's first in-season tournament title since the 2002 Florida International University New Years Classic on Dec. 27-28 at Miami when Danny Nee's Dukes defeated St. Francis, N.Y. (67-57) and Florida International (71-68 in OT). Sincere Carry was named Junkanoo Jam MVP with Michael Hughes joining Carry on the All-Tournament Team.
• Duquesne has produced the fourth and fifth-largest margins of victory in neutral-site games in program history this season (+22, 71-49 over Radford in Akron & +21, 71-50 over Loyola Marymount in Bimini, Bahamas). DU has five 20+-point wins this season (+27 over Princeton, +22 over Lipscomb and +36 over Columbia are the others).
• The Dukes prepared for the season with a trip to Nassau, Bahamas August 5-11. It was the third-ever foreign tour for Duquesne which traveled to Toronto to play four games in three days over Labor Day weekend in 2007 and also went to Ireland for a four-game tour in August of 2015. DU was allowed 10 practices prior to departing.
• DU's Nov. 12 win over Lamar was the 450th for third-year DU coach Keith Dambrot, who is in his 22nd season.
• This was the third time in school history that the Dukes (then 10-2) entered conference play with 10 wins (10-3 in 2007-08 & 10-3 in 2015-16 are the others). It is the fourth time DU posted 10 wins prior to the New Year (10-4 in 2017-18, 10-3 in 2015-16 & 10-0 in 1953-54 are the others).

LAST GAME
Duquesne 73, Saint Louis 59
Thursday, Jan. 2, Moon Township, Pa.

• Duquesne outscored Saint Louis 45-34 in the second half to turn a three-point halftime advantage into a 73-59 Atlantic 10-opening win.
• Marcus Weathers eclipsed his career scoring high for the third time in four games with 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
• Tavian Dunn-Martin, the 2018-19 Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year, came off the bench to add 21 points on 5-of-10 3-point shooting. Dunn-Martin had started DU's first 12 games.
• Michael Hughes finished with a career high-tying seven blocks. He posted a game-changing five rejections in the first 3:38 of the second half.
• Duquesne, which held SLU to .365 shooting, was the fourth team to score 70 or more vs. the Billikens (joining Valparaiso and Seton Hall).
• It was DU's sixth consecutive home win over SLU in the regular-season series.
• Saint Louis's largest lead was five, the last of which came at 13-8 at with 10:23 left in the first half ... Duquesne's largest lead was 14, the last of which was the final margin ... there were three ties and one lead change before Sincere Carry gave Duquesne the lead for good on a 3-pointer that made it 28-25 with 0:16 left in the first half ... Saint Louis led for 17:14 ... Duquesne led for 20:39.