G29 | DAVIDSON (13-14, 6-9) at DUQUESNE (19-9, 9-6)
Sun., Feb. 26, 2023 • 2:00 pm ET • Pittsburgh, Pa. • UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500)

TELEVISION: USA Network / NBC Sports App with Geoff Arnold & Matt McCall
RADIO: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58), Jarrett Durham ('71) & Tad Maurey

Duquesne (19-9, 9-6), winner of five of six in February, returns home to face Davidson (13-14, 6-9) in the annual Chuck Cooper Classic on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2:00 p.m. (USA Network with Geoff Arnold & Matt McCall).

DU will also be honoring final year players and support staff in a pre-game ceremony.

The Dukes, who are in the hunt for an Atlantic 10 Championship double bye, which go to the league's top four regular season finishers, enter Sunday's game with the chance to:

• Win 20 games for the first time since 2020 (second time under head coach Keith Dambrot and third time since 1981)
• Win 10 conference games for the first time since 2019 (third time under Dambrot and sixth time in program history)
• Clinch a winning A-10 season for the eighth time in program history (Dambrot already owns two)
• Tie the school record for home wins (set at 16-0 in 1950 and tied at 16-1 in 1972).

The Dukes had the fourth-highest NET ranking among A-10 schools (104) through Wednesday.

TRENDING

• Duquesne's 52 points in the paint at La Salle were the program's most in a regulation game under Keith Dambrot. (DU had 54 in a 3OT win over GW in 2022).
• DU has had five double-digit scorers in each of its past two games (88.0 ppg. over that span).
• DU, which averaged 65.2 ppg. last year, is averaging 75.3 ppg. (up +10.1 ppg.). The Dukes have topped the 90-point mark six times and are 17-4 when scoring 70 or more.
• Duquesne, which has the third-highest scoring average in conference games only (74.3 ppg.), does not have a player ranked among the top 20 in individual scoring in A-10 games only. (Grant is 22nd at 13.1 ppg.)
• DU's .372 3-point percentage leads the A-10 and is its best under Keith Dambrot (current best is .350 in 2017-18). The school record is .375 set in 1990. The Dukes are averaging an A-10 best 9.1 3-pointers/g.
• Joe Reece (career-high 26 points at La Salle) is the fourth Duke to score 26 in a game this season joining Dae Dae Grant (twice), Jimmy Clark III & R.J. Gunn Jr.
• Reece is averaging 20.5 ppg. on .727 shooting (16-of-22) and 7.5 rpg. in his past two games.
• G Jimmy Clark III, who has emerged as one of the most disruptive defenders in the A-10, leads the conference in steals (64) and is second in steals/g. (2.3). His 2.29 spg. ranked 15th nationally (thru Wed.).
• G Dae Dae Grant, who has scored in double digits 24 times (20+ eight times), has five games with five or more 3's. Grant went over the 1,600-pt. career mark at La Salle.
• Tevin Brewer is 15-of-27 (.556) from 3-point in his past six games. Brewer is second in the A-10 at .461 from the arc.
• Brewer (.461) and Grant (.404) rank 2nd and 7th in the A-10 in 3-point pct. thru Wednesday.

A-10 MINUTES CONTINUITY
Duquesne ranks 340th of 358 teams in KenPom's 'minutes continuity' metric. The metric determines the percentage of a team's minutes played by the same player from one season to the next, with the national average near 50 percent. According to the data, teams with more continuity tend to perform better, with the effect being stronger on offense. Duquesne's ranking makes this year's performance - and Keith Dambrot's coaching job - that much more impressive:
 

Rank	A-10 School	Pct.
4.	Dayton	75.5
24.	George Washington	66.4
48.	Saint Louis	59.5
67.	Fordham	55.9
111.	La Salle	51.0
141.	George Mason	47.5
144.	Saint Joseph's	47.3
190.	Davidson	41.5
192.	VCU	41.3
213.	Rhode Island	38.3
235.	Richmond	35.8
253..	Loyola Chicago	32.0
309.	Massachusetts	21.6
340.	DUQUESNE	14.7
358.	St. Bonaventure	0.2

DUKES AND WILDCATS
Series Record: Davidson leads 10-1
At Pittsburgh: Davidson leads 5-1
At Davidson: Davidson leads 5-0
Neutral Site: 0-0
A-10 Regular Season: Davidson leads 10-1
A-10 Championship: 0-0
Dambrot vs. Davidson: 1-5

• This is the 12th meeting between Duquesne and ninth-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 - won the first seven series meetings prior to DU's breakthrough 71-64 home win in 2020 at Robert Morris' UPMC Events Center.
• Last year, the Wildcats swept a home-and-home series: 72-61 at Belk Arena and 74-50 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Tre Williams is the only member of the current roster who saw action in either game.
• Davidson, the preseason pick to finish sixth in the A-10, is in its first season under head coach Matt McKillop. Since joining the A-10 in 2014-15, Davidson has won two regular season titles (2015, 2022), a tournament title (2018), made three NCAA Tournaments (2015, 2018, 2022).
• The Wildcats (13-14) have had 21 consecutive winning seasons.

WORTH NOTING

• It took the 2022-23 Dukes - with a roster that features 10 newcomers (five transfers & five freshmen) - eight games to exceed last year's win total (6-24). The Dukes opened 7-1.
• DU, which tripled last season's win total (6-24) with its Feb. 15 victory over Saint Joseph's, is on pace for the biggest one season turnaround in school history (see page 12). Head coach Keith Dambrot has masterminded the turnaround with a roster that ranks 340th in continuity (a measurement of players who played last season vs. those playing this season) per KenPom.
• DU, which had its complete regular roster rotation intact for the first time on Dec. 28 at Dayton (game #14), has had all of its key rotation players available for just four games.
• Duquesne, picked to finish 15th of 15 teams in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll, tied the school record for November wins set in 2008 and matched in 2020 (both 6-0). DU went 6-1 in November, with the lone loss coming at then No. 4 (AP) Kentucky.
• This was just the fourth time in program history - and second time under Keith Dambrot - that the Dukes entered Atlantic 10 play with 10 wins (10-3). The others: 2007-08 (10-3), 2015-16 (10-3) & 2019-20 (10-2).
• This is just the third time since Duquesne began conference play (1976-77) that a DU team has 19 wins through its first 28 games. Two of the three have come under Keith Dambrot: this year and 20-8 in 2020. The other was in 1981 (20-8) when the Dukes were conference regular season co-Champions.
• DU opened the month of February with four-straight wins for the first time since the 1970-71 NCAA Tournament team (21-4, No. 15 AP), started February with seven wins in a row.
• DU's 15 home wins (15-3) are tied for third-most all time and one shy of the school record (16-0 in 1950 & 16-1 in 1972). The Dukes have two home games remaining.
• Duquesne's top seven scorers are transfers: Dae Dae Grant (Miami, Ohio), Jimmy Clark III (NW Fla. College), R.J. Gunn (Lenoir-Rhyne), Joe Reece (Bowling Green), Tre Williams (Indiana State), Tevin Brewer (FIU) and Quincy McGriff (Salt Lake CC).
• The Dukes did not trail in seven of their wins, including four times in A-10 play: South Carolina State, DePaul, Winthrop, VCU, at Saint Joseph's, at GW & vs. Saint Joe's.

LAST GAME: DUQUESNE 91, LA SALLE 74
Feb. 22, 2023 • Tom Gola Arena • Philadelphia, Pa.

• Duquesne outscored La Salle 50-36 in the second half in pulling away for the win.
• The Dukes, who shot 56 percent, outscored the Explorers 52-22 in the paint.
• Joe Reece scored 18 of his career-high 26 points in the second half to lead the Dukes.
• Tre Williams added 14 points (11 in the second half) and a career-high six assists.
• Dae Dae Grant, R.J. Gunn Jr. and Austin Rotroff added 10 points each as the Dukes had five double-digit scorers for the second-straight game.
• The victory was the Dukes' first over the Explorers in Philadelphia since Jan. 19, 2011, snapping a six-game Tom Gola Arena losing streak.
• Duquesne's largest lead was 20, at 91-71, with :16 left ... La Salle's largest lead was two, at 28-26, with 4:13 left  ... there were three ties and two lead changes in the game ... Duquesne took the lead for good on R.J. Gunn Jr.'s 3-pointer at the first half horn (41-38) ... La Salle led for :32 ... Duquesne led for 36:43.