G6 | FORDHAM (1-2, 1-2) at DUQUESNE (2-3, 1-2)
Sat., Dec. 9  2:00 pm ET • McCandless, Pa. • Kerr Fitness Center (1,200)

TELEVISION: NBCSN with Brandon Burke & Ron Thompson
RADIO: WJAS-AM 1320 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)

Duquesne (2-3, 1-2), coming off a stretch of three games in four days, returns to the court for the first time since Tuesday to host Fordham (1-2, 1-2) on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 2:00 p.m. (NBCSN) at La Roche University's Kerr Fitness Center. This is the second of four  "home" games scheduled for the Dukes at La Roche - a Division III school located 10 miles north of DU's downtown Pittsburgh campus - due to the ongoing renovation of the on-campus UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse which began in March of 2019. Duquesne has won the past four meetings with the Rams, with all four games decided by eight or fewer points. Fordham, which is coming off a 55-54 home win over Dayton on Tuesday, had its first six games canceled for COVID-related reasons. The Rams, who opened their season on Dec. 30, are 0-1 on the road. Duquesne, Fordham and St. Bonaventure are the only A-10 teams who'll enter the weekend having played five or fewer games.

TRENDING

• Duquesne is playing its first four home games at Division III La Roche University located 10 miles north of campus while renovation work to the on-campus UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is completed.
• DU hasn't played a game on campus since Mar. 9, 2019 (vs. Dayton).
• Tavian Dunn-Martin, Michael Hughes & Marcus Weathers graduated in December, giving the Dukes four players with degrees (grad transfer Ryan Murphy is the fourth).
• DU was picked to finish fifth in the A-10 preseason poll. It is the highest the Dukes have appeared in the poll since the 2010 team, which returned four starters from a group that advanced to the 2009 A-10 Championship game, was picked tied for fifth.
• This is also the first time since 2010 (Damian Saunders Second Team and Bill Clark Third Team) that Duquesne has had two players on the A-10 Preseason Team (Marcus Weathers Second Team & Sincere Carry Third Team).
• Marcus Weathers, who will be playing in his 99th college basketball game on Saturday, has scored in double digits in each of DU's first four games.
• Michael Hughes ranks 10th among active D-I players in career blocks (165) and 17th in blocks/g. (1.96).
• Sincere Carry's 5.40 assist/g. average is the 14th-best among active D-I players.
• DU, playing its third game in four days, limited Davidson to 61 points and .383 shooting on Tuesday, but was unable to capitalize in a 61-48 defeat. The Dukes shot .288 (15-of-52) and went 12-of-21 from the foul line in their second-worst shooting performance under fourth-year head coach Keith Dambrot.
• The Dukes, who shot .750 from the foul line in their first three games (51-of-68), are 22-of-44 from the stripe (.500) in their past two.

COVID CHALLENGES
Duquesne, which didn't play from Dec. 2 to Jan. 2, had five games canceled or postponed in December for COVID-related reasons. The Dukes were on the bus ready to head to Indianapolis for neutral games vs. both Southern Illinois and Loyola Chicago, but were forced to cancel due to positive tests within the program. DU which, did not have a practice with the full team from Dec. 3-26, made the charter flight to St. Louis for a Dec. 30 game vs. SLU, but had that game postponed due to positive tests within the SLU program. In a program first, DU waived its Feb. 24 home game with George Washington to play twice in two days in D.C. on Jan. 2 & 3, before playing its latest home opener in 89 years on Jan. 5 vs. Davidson. The Dukes also had a two-week COVID-related program pause that ended October 29.

DUKES AND RAMS
Series Record: Duquesne leads 26-16
At Pittsburgh: Duquesne leads 13-7
At Bronx: Duquesne leads 12-7
Neutral Site: Fordham leads 2-1
A-10 Regular Season: Duquesne leads 19-13
A-10 Championship: Fordham leads 1-0
Dambrot vs. Fordham: 5-1

• This is the 43rd game in a series that dates to Dec. 22, 1949. Duquesne leads 26-16. In games played in Pittsburgh, the Dukes lead 13-7. DU has won the past four meetings, with all four decided by eight or fewer points.
• Fordham won three in a row at Palumbo Center, before Duquesne ended the streak with a 66-61 win in 2019. DU needed overtime to defeat the Rams last year at PPG Paints Arena by a 58-56 score.
• Duquesne went on to defeat the Rams, 59-54, in the Bronx in the second meeting last year, giving the Dukes wins in eight of the past 11 meetings.
• This is the fifth consecutive season the two are playing home-and-home. The two split the regular-season series in 2017 & 2018, prior to DU sweeps in 2019 & 2020.
• Duquesne is 19-13 against the Rams in Atlantic 10 regular-season play.
• Keith Dambrot is 5-1 against the Rams with all six meetings coming while at Duquesne.

A DU WIN WOULD ...

• Be DU's fifth in a row over Fordham and would give the Dukes their second-longest win streak in series history (dating back to 1954 through 1961 when DU defeated the Rams six-straight times).

ALL HANDS ON DECK
At least 10 players have seen action in each of DU's first five games, with a high of 13 taking the court in the Jan. 3 game at George Washington:
 

Opponent	# of Players
vs. Little Rock	12
vs. UNCG	11
at George Washington	12
at George Washington	13
Davidson	10

UPMC COOPER FIELDHOUSE

• The Dukes won 10 of 14 home games while playing at three different venues (PPG Paints Arena, D-III La Roche University and Robert Morris University) last season. Duquesne was displaced by season-long renovation work being done to the on-campus UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. In all, Duquesne had to board a bus for 24 of its 30 games in 2020 (La Roche is 10 miles from DU's downtown campus & Robert Morris is an 18-mile one-way trip). The experience will come in handy as construction on the new facility was halted for several weeks over the summer due to the coronavirus, leaving the 2020-21 opening date to be announced. Duquesne is 37-16 in home games under Dambrot, including a 24-10 mark over the past three seasons. The Dukes are 11-8 in A-10 home games and 11-9 in conference road games over the past three years.

FOUR GRAND?
In a normal, roughly 30-game season, Duquesne would have had an excellent chance to finish the 2020-21 season with four 1,000-point scorers. Only once in school history has DU had three players with 1,000 or more points on the floor at the same time (late in 1997-98 with Kevin Price, Mike James & Nick Bosnic). Here are the current career point totals for DU's top scorers:

1,123 - Marcus Weathers
   761 - Tavian Dunn-Martin
   750 - Sincere Carry
   713 - Michael Hughes

• Weathers scored 310 points at Miami, Ohio, Dunn-Martin scored 145 points at Akron and Hughes scored 35 points at Akron. All three are in their third season at Duquesne.