GAME 16
Richmond (11-5 | 3-0 A-10) vs. Duquesne (9-6 | 0-3 A-10)
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.
Pittsburgh, Pa. | UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500)
 
Stream: ESPN+ with Tim Benz & Ellis Cannon
Radio: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Jarrett Durham ('71)
 
Game Notes | Record Book | Media Center | TV/Radio Spotter Chart | Watch | Listen | Live Stats
 
Opening Tip
 
- The Duquesne University men's basketball team searches for its first Atlantic 10 win Tuesday, Jan. 16, when it hosts Richmond at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse for a 7:00 p.m. tip.
 
- The Dukes opened a stretch of six of eight at home with a 72-62 setback to Dayton in front of 3,724 fans, the first sellout in the history of the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Senior guard Dae Dae Grant led Duquesne against the Flyers, scoring all 14 of his points in the final 5:35 of action.
 
- Senior guard Jimmy Clark III and freshman guard Jake DiMichele each scored 12 points against Dayton, while forward David Dixon grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go along with four points and three blocks.
 
- Grant enters Tuesday's game against the Spiders ranked second in the Atlantic 10 in free-throw percentage (.943), third in three-point field goals made per game (2.80) and fourth in scoring (18.3 ppg) while Clark III paces the conference in steals with 36, an average of 2.40 per contest. Dixon, who owns a team-high 27 rejections, ranks sixth in the A-10 in blocks per game (1.80).
 
- Grant, the active career leader scoring in the A-10 with 1,956 points in five seasons at the NCAA Division I level, is 44 points away from 2,000 for his career as well as 215 short of 1,000 in two seasons with the Dukes.
 
- A number of Dukes are approaching the 1,000-point plateau as Atlantic 10 play gets into full swing. Forward Fousseyni Drame is nine points shy of eclipsing 1,000 points for his career, while fellow frontcourt teammates Andrei Savrasov and Tre Williams are 42 and 49 points, respectively, short of the mark.
 
- When holding opponents to less than 70 points under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne has posted a record of 62-16 (.795), including a 6-0 mark during the 2023-24 season.
 
- Duquesne heads to Saint Joseph's Saturday, Jan. 20, after hosting Richmond.  
 
Scouting the Spiders – The Dukes and Spiders tip for the 38th time Tuesday in an all-time series that began Jan. 12, 1937, with the Spiders owning a 26-11 (.703) advantage. Duquesne led the all-time series, 8-0, when Richmond joined the Atlantic 10 in 2001-02. The Spiders promptly reeled off 14 consecutive wins before the Dukes ended the streak with an 81-72 victory at the Palumbo Center in 2012. Richmond then won eight more in a row before Duquesne halted the streak with a 74-68 win in Richmond in 2019, the first for DU at UR since 1993. During the regular season in the Atlantic 10, the Spiders hold a 24-2 cushion. The Dukes have eclipsed the 70-point plateau six times in 21 meetings (3-18) against Richmond under Chris Mooney. Each time it has been a tight game, including a 75-73 win for the Spiders last season at the Robins Center in the only meeting between the two teams. Duquesne led, 49-34, at halftime, but Jason Roche connected from beyond the arc with seven seconds remaining to lift Richmond to the victory. Forward David Dixon contributed 11 points, all in the second half.
 
Head Coach Keith Dambrot (Seventh Year at Duquesne | 26th Year Overall) – Keith Dambrot, who built Akron into one of the most successful - and most respected - programs in the Mid-American Conference over 13 seasons, was named head men's basketball coach at Duquesne University on March 28, 2017. The veteran coach wasted no time making an impact on the DU program with 65 wins in his first four seasons. He became just the fourth head coach in program history to reach 100 victories thanks to a 95-47 win over Cleary, and his two 20-win seasons - in just six years - are tied for the third-most in program history. Dambrot reached a significant career milestone on Feb. 8, 2023 when he posted his 500th career victory with a 75-52 triumph over George Mason. Dambrot owns an overall record of 513-299 (.632) during his career as a head coach, and his father, Sid, was part of Duquesne teams that finished ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 in 1952 (No. 4), 1953 (No. 9) and 1954 (No. 5). The 1954 team, which went 26-3, made it to No. 1 in the AP poll for two weeks in February of 1954. The Dukes played in both the NCAA tournament and NIT in 1952 and the NIT in both 1953 and 1954.
 
Dayton Leftovers – The Flyers extended their lead over Duquesne in the all-time series to 62-25 (.713) ... For the first time during the 2023-24 season the Dukes did not own a lead in a game ... Dayton grabbed its biggest lead, 43-29, with 13:34 to go before Duquesne used a 12-2 run to trim its deficit to 45-41 ... Forward Tre Williams earned his first start of the 2023-24 season (112th of his career) and finished with four points, two rebounds and a block ... The Flyers posted a 39-27 advantage in rebounding, including a 13-11 edge in offensive caroms ... The reserves for the Dukes outscored the bench for the Flyers, 26-12 ... Dayton outscored Duquesne, 36-26, in points in the paint and 16-9 in second chance points.
 
300 – Senior Dae Dae Grant, who has hit at least one three-pointer in 23 consecutive games dating back to last season, has drained 136 triples in 48 career games at Duquesne, an average of 2.83 per contest. The most three-pointers for a member of the Dukes playing two seasons with the program is former guard Mike Lewis II, who connected for 164 from 2017-19. That total ranks seventh in the Duquesne career record book. Thanks to his first three-pointer against Dayton, Grant became one of 15 active student-athletes at the NCAA Division I level with 300 triples to his credit, as he enters Tuesday's game against Richmond with 301 for his career. Grant also cracked the top 10 in the Duquesne career record book with his performance against the Flyers, as his 136 three-pointers with the Dukes is tied for 10th with former point guard Kenya Hunter (1993-96).      
 
State Farm – Freshman guard Jake DiMichele has seen the most extensive run of his rookie campaign the last two weeks, and it paid dividends against Dayton. DiMichele sparked runs in each half against the Flyers en route to a career-high 12 points in just a shade under 20 minutes (19:54) of action. He shot 5-for-10 from the field and also added a pair of rebounds and two steals. DiMichele had played a total of 20:44 in the first 13 games of the year but in games at Loyola Chicago and against Dayton at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse averaged 9.5 points while shooting 57.1 percent (8-for-14) from the field to go along with four rebounds and three steals. DiMichele concluded his prep career by scoring 2,642 points at Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH), which at the time ranked second in WPIAL history to former Duquesne guard Tom Pipkins (1993-97), who scored 2,828 points at Valley and was an inductee into the WPIAL Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023. 
 
Chalk Talk – Senior guard Dae Dae Grant has proven to be adept at the free-throw line during his career, and those numbers have only been amplified in his two seasons at Duquesne. Having established a new program record for consecutive free throws (43) made this season, Grant converted his first five free throws in the Atlantic 10 opener for the Dukes at Massachusetts before missing his final opportunity of the contest, snapping a streak of 29 consecutive free throws. Since the season opener against Cleveland State, where he hit his final three free throws as part of an 8-for-11 performance, Grant has converted 77 of his last 79 chances (97.5%) at the line. Among A-10 leaders at the stripe, Grant ranks second in the conference at 94.3 percent (82-for-87), a success rate that also ranks eighth in NCAA Division I. Grant is also tied for 30th in NCAA Division I in free throws, as he averages 5.80 trips to the stripe per game.
 
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