G32 | #6 DUQUESNE (20-11) vs #11 LA SALLE (13-18) OR #14 URI (9-21)
Wed., Mar. 8, 2023 • 7:30 pm ET • Brooklyn, N.Y. • Barclays Center (19,000)

USA NETWORK: Jac Collinsworth & Julianne Viani-Braen; Caroline Pineda sideline
RADIO: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio: Ray Goss ('58) & Tad Maurey

No. 6 seed Duquesne (20-11, 10-8) opens Atlantic 10 Championship play against the winner of No. 11 La Salle (13-18, 7-11) vs. No. 14 Rhode Island (9-21, 5-13) on Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. (USA/Jac Collinsworth & Julianne Viani-Braen).

The winner moves on to face No. 3 seed Fordham (24-7, 12-6) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (USA).

This is Duquesne's fifth A-10 Championship appearance under head coach Keith Dambrot (1-4). 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.

Duquesne's No. 6 seed is the program's highest since Dambrot's Dukes took a No. 6 seed into the 2020 Championship. The 2019-20 Dukes, who finished 21-9, never had the opportunity to take the floor as the 2020 Championship was canceled due to the pandemic.

TOURNAMENT TIDBITS

LEAGUE FINISH
Duquesne finished the regular season tied with George Washington for 6th in the Atlantic 10 with a 10-8 record. The Dukes secured the No. 6 seed by virtue of their 93-67 regular season win at GW on Feb. 4. This was the sixth time in 46 Atlantic 10 seasons that Duquesne finished with 10 or more conference wins. Sixth-year head coach Keith Dambrot owns three of them (11-7 in 2020 and 10-8 in 2019 are the others). This was also DU's eighth winning A-10 season (third under Dambrot).

ITS ALL NEW TO ME
No member of the current Duquesne roster has ever played in an Atlantic 10 Championship game. (Tre Williams, Austin Rotroff and R.J. Gunn Jr. were all injured for last year's game vs. Rhode Island and Jimmy Clark III did not see action for VCU in 2020-21).

THE BRACKET
DU went 6-3 against the teams on its side of the bracket: 1-0 vs. No. 11 La Salle, 1-0 vs. No. 14 Rhode Island, 2-0 vs. No. 10 Saint Joseph's, 1-0 vs. No. 15 Loyola Chicago, 1-0 vs. No. 7 George Washington, 0-2 vs. No. 3 Fordham and 0-1 vs. No. 2 Dayton.

LOOKING TO BECOME A MULTIPLE WINNER
Keith Dambrot, who guided the Dukes to an opening round A-10 Championship win over Richmond at VCU's Siegel Center in 2021, is looking to become the first Duquesne coach since John Carroll (1990, 1994 & 1995) to post wins in multiple A-10 Championships. Dambrot is 1-4 in A-10 Championship play at Duquesne.

A-10 CHAMPIONSHIP NOTABLES

• Only three of the past 16 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 12 Championships played (includes former member Temple): Temple (2010), Richmond (2011 & 2022), 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 Championship - however two have come in the past seven 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

• DU, which averaged 65.2 ppg. last year, is averaging 75.0 ppg. (up +9.8 ppg.). The Dukes have topped the 90-point mark six times and are 18-4 when scoring 70 or more.
• Duquesne, which had the third-highest scoring average in conference games only (73.8 ppg.), did not have a player ranked among the top 19 in scoring in A-10 games only. (Dae Dae Grant was 20th at 13.2 ppg.)
• DU's .367 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 9.0 3-pointers/g.
• Four Dukes: Dae Dae Grant (vs. North Florida & UCSB), Jimmy Clark III (vs. VCU), R.J. Gunn Jr. (at Saint Joseph's) & Joe Reece (at La Salle) have scored 26 points in a game this season.
• G Jimmy Clark III, who has emerged as one of the most disruptive defenders in the A-10, leads the conference in steals (72) and is second in steals/g. (2.3). He has eight steals in DU's past two games.
• G Dae Dae Grant's 10 20-point games are the most by a Duke since Micah Mason scored 20 or more 15 times in 2016.
• Tevin Brewer is 19-of-37 (.514) from 3-point in his past nine games. Brewer is second in the A-10 at .453 from the arc. Brewer needs 46 points to reach 1,000.
• Brewer (.453) and Grant (.401) rank 2nd and 6th in the A-10 in 3-point pct. thru Sat.
• The Dukes are 9-3 when making 10 or more 3-pointers, 20-1 when leading with 5:00 left and 16-3 when leading at the half.
• DU has had five double-digit scorers in three of its past five games.

WORTH NOTING

• With its March 1 win over UMass, Duquesne, coming off a 6-24 season, accomplished the following:

    * Reached 20 wins for just the 3rd time in the past 42 years (2009 & 2020 are the others).
    * Clinched the program's 8th winning A-10 record (3rd under Dambrot) in 46 years as an A-10 member.
    * Reached double-digit wins for the sixth time in conference play (3rd under Dambrot).

• 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. Head coach Keith Dambrot has masterminded the turnaround with a roster that ranks 340th of 358 schools 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 five games. Halil Barre, Tevin Brewer, R.J. Gunn, Matus Hronsky, Joe Reece and Tre Williams have all missed multiple games this season.
• 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).
• 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 16 home wins (16-4) tied the school record set in 1950 (16-0) and matched in 1972 (16-1).
• 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.
• Duquesne's 66-55 win over DePaul on Dec. 14 was the program's first over a Big East school since an 86-82 victory over West Virginia on Nov. 25, 2002 at A.J. Palumbo Center. The margin of victory was DU's largest over a Power 6 school since a 78-52 win over Penn State (Big Ten) at CONSOL Energy Center on Nov. 20, 2015 (under Jim Ferry).

LA SALLE SERIES QUICK NOTES

• This is the 81st meeting in a series that dates to Feb. 10, 1940. La Salle leads 46-34, including a 25-17 advantage in Atlantic 10 regular season games. The Explorers won 10 of the past 13 prior to DU's 91-74 win in Philadelphia on Feb. 22.
• La Salle has won both A-10 Championship meetings between the two: 82-79 in the first round in Atlantic City, N.J. on Mar. 12, 2008 (La Salle was a #7 and Duquesne a #10 seed) and 88-73 in the first round at Barclays Center on Mar. 9, 2016 (Duquesne was a #11 and La Salle a #14 seed). The '08 Dukes were coached by Ron Everhart and the '16 team was led by Jim Ferry.
• La Salle has outscored Duquesne by just 11 points in the past 21 meetings (1,684-1,673 dating back to 2006-07). The Dukes have won nine and the Explorers 12 over that span. The average score in those 21 games is 80.2-79.7 in La Salle's favor.
• Keith Dambrot (25th season) is 2-1 all time vs. La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy (31st season), with the first two meetings coming when Dambrot was at Akron and Dunphy at Temple: a 67-65 win at Akron on 11/26/07 & a 47-82 defeat at Temple on 12/12/10. DU won this year's matchup on Feb. 22 (91-74).

RHODE ISLAND SERIES QUICK NOTES

• This is the 66th meeting in a series that dates to Jan. 13, 1966. Rhode Island, winner of 23 of the past 33, leads the all-time series 36-29. Duquesne has won four of the past seven.
• Due to pandemic-related rescheduling, 2020-21 marked the first time in 20 years 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). Rhode Island won the next two, including a 79-77 victory at last year's A-10 Championship.
• 13 of the past 19 games between the two (12 URI wins) have been determined by eight or fewer points. Four of the eight games under current DU coach Keith Dambrot have been one possession affairs.
• Keith Dambrot is 4-6 vs. URI (4-4 at Duquesne), with the first two meetings - both losses - coming while at Akron.
• The Dukes and Rams are tied at 2-2 in A-10 Championship games. Last year, No. 11 Rhode Island defeated #14 Duquesne 79-77 in Washington, D.C. No members of the current roster saw action in that game.

FORDHAM SERIES QUICK NOTES

• This is the 49th game in a series that dates to Dec. 22, 1949. Duquesne leads 28-20. DU had a six-game series streak snapped by a 72-71 Fordham home win last January. The six-game win streak matched the longest by either team in the series. Since then, the Rams have won four straight.
• Seven of the past 10 meetings between the two have been single-digit affairs, with three of the past eight decided by three or fewer points.
• This was the seventh consecutive season the two played home-and-home. The two split the regular-season series in 2017 & 2018, prior to DU sweeps in 2019, 2020 & 2021. Fordham swept the series last year and this year.
• Duquesne is 0-1 against the Rams in Atlantic 10 Championship play, with the lone meeting coming on Mar. 9, 2005 at Cincinnati's U.S. Bank Arena (53-65).
• Keith Dambrot is 7-5 against Fordham with all 12 meetings coming while at Duquesne.