GAME 32
2024 Atlantic 10 Championship
#6 Duquesne (20-11) vs. #14 Saint Louis (13-19)
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | 7:30 p.m.
Brooklyn, N.Y. | Barclays Center (19,000)
 
TV: USA Network with Paul Burmeister, Tim McCormick & Caroline Pineda
Radio: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Tim Benz
 
Game Notes | Record Book | Media Center | TV/Radio Spotter Chart | Watch | Listen | Live Stats
 
Opening Tip
 
- The Duquesne University men's basketball team opens play in the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship Wednesday, March 13, with a 7:30 p.m. tip in the second round against No. 14 seed Saint Louis in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center.
 
- The Dukes, winners of four straight, six of seven and 11 of 14 since an 0-5 start in the Atlantic 10, concluded the 2023-24 regular season with a 67-65 win over George Washington at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
 
- Senior guard Jimmy Clark III hit a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds to propel Duquesne to win the over GW and finished with 22 points, three assists and four steals in the win. Thanks to performance, Clark III eclipsed 1,000 career points, pushed his career assist total to 200 and cracked the top 10 at Duquesne for career steals with 150.
 
- Clark III was named to the 2024 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team as well as the 2024 All-Atlantic 10 Defensive Team in a vote of league head coaches, with senior guard Dae Dae Grant joining Clark III on the second team.
 
- Thanks to the win over George Washington, Duquesne has notched back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1970-71 and 1971-72. In seven seasons as head coach, Keith Dambrot has guided the Dukes to three 20-win campaigns.
 
- Grant enters Wednesday's game leading the Atlantic 10 in free-throw percentage (95.7%) while ranking sixth in the conference in scoring, while guard Jimmy Clark III paces the A-10 in steals with an average of 2.39 per contest. 
 
- Clark III is the third member of the Dukes to eclipse 1,000 career points this season, joining Fousseyni Drame (at Saint Joseph's) and Tre Williams (at Fordham), who own career point totals of 1,115 and 1,011, respectively. Clark has scored 1,001 career points, including 871 in two seasons on the Bluff.
 
- When holding opponents to less than 70 points in seven years under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne has posted a record of 72-17 (.809), including a 16-1 (.941) mark during the 2023-24 campaign.
 
- Duquesne (2009) is one of seven schools that 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). All-time in the Atlantic 10 Championship the Dukes have posted a record of 21-42 (.333).
 
- The winner of Wednesday's game will face No. 3 Dayton Thursday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m., in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship.  
 
Scouting the Billikens – Duquesne and Saint Louis square off for the 36th time Wednesday, with the Dukes owning an 18-17 (.514) edge in the all-time series. The Dukes have won five of the past eight in the series but have dropped two of three to the Billikens in the Atlantic 10 Championship. In the only meeting between the two programs during the 2023-24 regular season, senior guards Dae Dae Grant (31) and Jimmy Clark III (19) combined for 50 points as Duquesne posted a wire-to-wire victory over SLU, 81-66, at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Feb. 20, 2024. The Dukes jumped out to leads of 6-0 and 15-4 before Grant used a personal 10-0 run to expand the lead to 25-4 just seven-and-a-half minutes into the contest. The last time the Dukes faced the Billikens in the A-10 Championship, Davell Roby scored on a putback with 1.6 seconds left to give #11 Saint Louis a 72-71 win over #14 Duquesne in the opening round of the 2017 Atlantic 10 Championship at Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena. Mike Lewis II led four Dukes in double figures with a game-high 22 points.
 
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 three 20-win seasons - in just seven years – rank third 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 524-304 (.633) 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.
 
George Washington Leftovers – Duquesne earned its second consecutive win over the Revolutionaries and improved to 8-4 (.667) against GW under head coach Keith Dambrot ... The Dukes set season lows for personal fouls (9) and attempts from beyond the arc (12) ... Duquesne was 11-for-11 at the free-throw line in the victory, with only a 13-for-13 performance in a 90-72 win over the College of Charleston at the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Md., in the second game of the year better for the Dukes this season ... Senior guard Jimmy Clark III was 6-for-6 at the chalk, sophomore forward David Dixon finished 3-for-3 and forward Dusan Mahorcic hit both of his opportunities ... The Revs finished 8-for-9 (88.9%) at the stripe ... Darren Buchanan, Jr., led George Washington with 19 points, while James Bishop IV added 17 (on 18 shots) ... The 18 attempts from the floor match a season high by an opponent, with four others reaching the mark previously.
 
Oh That's Dave – Sophomore forward David Dixon has been a key rotation piece off the bench for the Dukes this season, and he was a factor in a 67-65 win over George Washington. In just under 27 minutes of action, Dixon contributed 11 points, tied for game-high honors in rebounds (7) and also blocked four shots. Over the last two seasons, Dixon has finished with at least four rejections in a game six times, with the Dukes a perfect 6-0 in those contests. Dixon also owns 43 percent (31-of-72) of Duquesne's dunks this season, posting the most jams in a season since Eric Williams, Jr., finished with 32 during the 2018-19 season.
 
Did You Know? Since scoring a season-low four points against Davidson, senior guard Jimmy Clark III has reached double figures eight times in the last nine games, producing averages of 15.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.8 steals during that stretch while shooting 44.1 percent (49-for-111) from the field, including 40.4 percent (21-for-52) from beyond the arc. The Dukes, not surprisingly, are 7-2 (.778) during that span and are yielding just 64.8 points per game.
 
The Line Dance – A key reason Duquesne carries a four-game winning streak into the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship as well as won six of its last seven has been its ability to convert at the free-throw line. In the last seven contests, the Dukes are shooting 83.1 percent (98-for-118) at the chalk. During that stretch, guard Kareem Rozier is a perfect 6-for-6, guard Dae Dae Grant is 28-of-29 (96.6%) and forward Dusan Mahorcic is 13-for-15 (84.6%). During the final two minutes of contests during the last seven games, Duquesne has shot 82.6 percent (19-for-23) at the free-throw line. The Dukes have also been successful on 16 consecutive free throws dating back to the second half of a 69-59 win at VCU.
 
Defensively Speaking – Thanks to a 69-59 win at VCU, Duquesne improved to 34-1 (.971) in seven seasons under head coach Keith Dambrot when holding an opponent under 60 points, including 26 consecutive wins dating back to 2019. The only loss for the Dukes under Dambrot when holding an opponent to less than 60 points came against St. Bonaventure, a 51-49 setback at the A.J. Palumbo Center Feb. 6, 2019. During its four-game winning streak entering the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship, the Dukes are holding opponents to 59.5 points per contest.    
 
Dae In, Dae Out – Senior guard Dae Dae Grant bolstered the Dukes in a 69-59 triumph at VCU with a game-high 26 points. In the victory he shot 8-of-17 from the floor, including 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, while going a perfect 5-for-5 at the free-throw line. Grant has eclipsed the 20-point plateau eight times this season, with Duquesne 6-2 (.750) in those contests, as well as 19 times in two seasons on the Bluff. Overall the last two years when Grant scores at least 20 points in a game the Dukes have posted a record of 13-6 (.682). Grant enters the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship having scored 979 points in two seasons at Duquesne, just 21 points shy of becoming the 40th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point threshold as a member of the Dukes. Overall in five seasons at the NCAA Division I level, Grant has scored 2,150 points.
 
Steal City – Duquesne matched a season high for the third time in four games with 12 steals in a 59-51 victory at George Mason, with senior guard Jimmy Clark III leading the way with four. The Dukes have recorded 12 steals in a game five times this season, with Duquesne a perfect 5-0 in those contests, and are 9-1 (.900) in 2023-24 when recording at least 10 thefts in a contest. As a team, the Dukes sit third in the Atlantic 10 in steals per game (7.65). Clark III, meanwhile, enters the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship ranked 10th this year in NCAA Division I in steals per game (2.39). His career average, meanwhile, of 1.91 per contest (185 in 97 games) ranks 17th among active NCAA Division I players. Thanks to four steals in a 67-65 win over George Washington, Clark III cracked the top 10 in program history for thefts with 150 in two seasons on the Bluff. 
 
Did You Know? The Dukes are 9-0 this season when first to reach 70 points against an opponent and have won 28 consecutive games when turning the trick. In seven seasons under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne is 72-7 (.911) when hitting the 70-point plateau first.                   
 
30/30/30 - Senior guard Dae Dae Grant led the Dukes in an 81-66 victory over Saint Louis with 31 points, eclipsing the 30-point plateau for the third time this season. Now owning the last 30-point performance by a Duquesne student-athlete at home, on the road (at Rhode Island) and on a neutral court (vs. Santa Clara at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.), Grant is the first member of the Dukes to have at least three games scoring 30 or more points in a season since Aaron Jackson (2006-09) during the 2008-09 campaign. That year Jackson scored 36 at Radford and 30 at home against Charlotte before dropping 46 at Virginia Tech in the first round of the 2009 National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The last player for Duquesne to score 30 or more in a game four times during a season was James Hargrove, Jr., in 1991-92.
 
The Beer Bar – Fans that can't attend Wednesday's game against the Billikens in person can still catch all the action from Mike's Beer Bar on the North Shore. A watch party will take place for fans of the Dukes in the 7:30 p.m. tip against Saint Louis. Located across from PNC Park, Mike's Beer Bar is a premier craft beer destination in Pittsburgh, with 80 rotating taps and over 500 beers. Meet you at Mike's!
 
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