2022 ATLANTIC 10 MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

G30 | #14 DUQUESNE (6-23, 1-16) vs #11 RHODE ISLAND (14-15, 5-12)
Wed., Mar. 9, 2022 • 3:30 pm ET • Washington, D.C. • Capital One Arena (20,356)

LIVE STREAM: ESPN+ with Matt Martucci & John Feinstein
RADIO: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)

For game links/bracket/schedule/results, please visit Atlantic 10 Championship Central

No. 14 seed Duquesne (6-23, 1-16) opens Atlantic 10 Championship play against No. 11 Rhode Island  (14-15, 5-12) on Wednesday, March 9 at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+/Matt Martucci & John Feinstein). The winner moves on to face No. 6 seed Richmond (19-12, 10-8) on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. (USA).

This is Duquesne's fourth A-10 Championship appearance under head coach Keith Dambrot (1-3). Dambrot went 27-10 in 13 Mid-American Conference Tournament appearances while the head coach at Akron (2005-13). His Akron teams reached the MAC championship game nine times and won at least one game in all 13 appearances. Last year,

Dambrot guided ninth-seeded Duquesne to just its fourth opening game win since 1995, a 67-62 victory over eighth-seeded Richmond at VCU's Siegel Center (that's in 23 appearances, DU did not qualify in 2006 & 2013).

DU is looking to win back-to-back opening round games for the first time since 1994 & 1995.

TOURNAMENT TIDBITS

FAMILIAR FOE
This will be the second meeting in 12 days between the Dukes and Rams, with Rhody taking the first decision by a 70-54 at Ryan Center on Feb. 26.
• Kevin Easley Jr. (13 points) and Jackie Johnson III (10 points) were the lone Dukes in double figures in the loss.
• Toby Okani pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds for the Dukes, who were outscored 40-16 in the paint in their first game without injured center Tre Williams.
• The Rams outshot the Dukes 47 percent to 33 percent.
• Duquesne assisted on 11 of its 18 field goals.
• Rhode Island's largest lead was +21 at 44-23 with 18:22 remaining ... Duquesne's largest lead came at 2-0 .... there were three lead changes before Ishmael El-Amin gave URI the lead for good on a 3-pointer with 16:44 left in the first half ... Rhode Island led for 37:26 ... Duquesne led for 1:30.

VS. RHODE ISLAND AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP
• DU is 2-1 vs. Rhode Island in A-10 Championship play, with the last meeting coming in 2009 when Ron Everhart's seventh-seeded Dukes defeated #2 seed Rhody, coached by Jim Baron, 78-74, in the second round at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. The '09 Dukes - led by All-Championship guard Aaron Jackson - advanced to the tournament title game before falling to #4 seed Temple (69-64).
• The two also met in 1995 (an 82-69 DU first round win at The Palestra) and 2003 (a 75-73 Rhody first round win on campus at the Ryan Center).

AWAITING THE WINNER
The Duquesne/Rhode Island winner will move on to face No. 6 seed Richmond (19-12, 10-8) at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. Duquesne lost to the Spiders, 74-57, in Pittsburgh on Feb. 1.
• Richmond went 7-of-11 from 3-point in outscoring the Dukes 39-25 in the second half. DU, which led 27-16 early, led for 16:55 of the first half.
• Leon Ayers III came off the bench to lead the Dukes with 14 points. Toby Okani had 13 points and Tre Williams added 10. Primo Spears tied his career high with seven assists.
• The Dukes went 4-of-21 from 3-point, including 0-of-10 in the second half. Richmond finished 13-of-24 from the arc.
• Richmond's largest lead was 22, at 60-38 with 10:26 left ... Duquesne's largest lead was nine at 26-17 with 8:05 left in the first half ... there was one tie and three lead changes before UR took the lead for good on Tyler Burton's 3-pointer that made it 35-32 at the first half horn ... Richmond led for 20:55 ... Duquesne led for 16:55.

THE BRACKET
DU went 1-7 against the teams on its side of the bracket: 0-1 vs. No. 11 Rhode Island, 1-0 vs. No. 10 UMass, 0-2 vs. No. 7 George Washington, 0-1 vs. No. 6 Richmond, 0-1 vs. No. 3 VCU and 0-2 vs. No. 2 Dayton.

A-10 CHAMPIONSHIP NOTABLES

• Only three of the past 15 regular season champions have gone on to win the postseason tournament (co-champ Temple in 2010, Saint Louis in 2013 & St. Bonaventure in 2021).
• Eight different schools have won the past 11 Championships played (includes former member Temple): Temple (2010), Richmond (2011), St. Bonaventure (2012 & 2021), Saint Louis (2013 & 2019), Saint Joseph's (2014 & 2016), VCU (2015), Rhode Island (2017) and Davidson (2018).
• Only four times has a team won four consecutive games to win the tournament - however two have come in the past six tournaments (Xavier in 2004 & 2006, VCU in 2015 and Saint Louis in 2019).
• Duquesne (2009) is one of seven schools who has won three times to reach the championship game since divisional seeding was discontinued in 2006. In the history of the tournament, it has only happened a total of nine times: St. Bonaventure (1984), Xavier (2004 Champion), Xavier (2006 Champion), Saint Joseph's (2006), Saint Joseph's (2008), Duquesne (2009), Dayton (2011), VCU (2015 Champion) and Saint Louis (2019 Champion).

TRENDING

• Duquesne, which had a streak of 13-straight games with 62 or fewer points, has scored 93 (in triple OT at GW) and 76 (vs. La Salle) in its past two games.
• DU shot .509 in its 85-76 loss to La Salle on Saturday. It was the Dukes' second-best shooting game of the season. It was also just the second time in 19 games under Keith Dambrot that DU lost when shooting 50 percent or better.
• Duquesne ranked 11th nationally in fewest fouls per game (13.7) through Saturday. Only six schools committed fewer total fouls than DU's 396 thru Saturday.
• Duquesne's 11.6 turnovers/g. are the third-fewest in school history. The school record low of 11.0 was set in 2013-14. DU turned it over 16 times in the first meeting with Rhode Island.
• Freshman G Primo Spears has topped his career scoring high in each of his past two games with 25 in the 3OT game at GW and a DU freshman record-tying 34 in the regular-season finale vs. La Salle. Spears scored 25 in the second half vs. the Explorers. He was named A-10 Rookie of the Week for the third time on Monday.
• Freshman G Jackie Johnson III, came off the bench to score a career-high 30 points at GW. Johnson III has scored 27 on two other occasions (vs. Weber State & at UMass). The 30 at GW were the third-most off the bench by a DU player in 20 years. Is 9-of-18 from 3-point in his past two games.
• Grad transfer Davis Larson, who had 15 points in his first 18 games, has 16 in his past two (8 each vs. GW and La Salle). Larson, a D-II grad transfer from Hillsdale, made his second career start vs. La Salle.
• The Dukes have used 13 starting lineups, including six in Atlantic 10 play. Ten players have started at least once. Tre Williams, who was injured on Feb. 23 vs. Davidson, was the only player to start every game this season at the time of his injury.
• The depleted DU frontcourt took another hit on Feb. 23 when Tre Williams (10.8, 5.7, 54 blocks, team-high 31.4 min/g.), was forced to leave the Davidson game with a knee injury with just over one minute left in the first half. He is out 4-6 weeks following Feb. 28 arthroscopic meniscus surgery. The Dukes are already without 6-10 veteran big man Austin Rotroff (foot, out 4-6 weeks) and grad transfer forward R.J. Gunn (preseason ankle injury).
• According to KenPom.com Duquesne faced the most-difficult conference schedule among A-10 schools. DU faced three of the A-10 Championship's four double-bye teams twice (Davidson, Dayton & St. Bonaventure).

DUKES AND RAMS
Series Record: Rhode Island leads 35-28
At Pittsburgh: Duquesne leads 15-14
At Kingston: Rhode Island leads 21-11
Neutral Site: Duquesne leads 2-0
A-10 Regular Season: Rhode Island leads 32-24
A-10 Championship: Duquesne leads 2-1
Dambrot vs. URI/at Duquesne: 3-5/3-3
Current Streak: Rhode Island won one

• This is the 64th meeting in a series that dates to Jan. 13, 1966. Rhode Island, winner of 22 of the past 31, leads the all-time series 35-28. In A-10 Championship play DU leads 2-1, with the loss coming at URI's Ryan Center in 2003.
• Due to pandemic-related rescheduling, last year marked the first time since 2000-01 that DU and URI met twice in the same regular season. Duquesne swept the two games with a 71-69 "home" win at LaRoche University's Kerr Fitness Center (Jan. 20) and an 86-75 win at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (Feb. 27). Rhody won the lone meeting this season, 70-54 in Kingston, R.I. on Feb. 28.
• Twelve of the past 17 games between the two (11 URI wins) have been determined by eight or fewer points. Three of the six games under current DU coach Keith Dambrot have been one possession affairs.
• Keith Dambrot is 3-5 vs. URI (3-3 at Duquesne), with the first two meetings - both losses - coming while at Akron.