GAME 34
2024 Atlantic 10 Championship - Semifinals
#6 Duquesne (22-11) vs. #7 St. Bonaventure (20-12)
Saturday, March 16, 2024 | 3:30 p.m.
Brooklyn, N.Y. | Barclays Center (19,000)
 
TV: CBS Sports Network with Tom McCarthy, Chris Walker & AJ Ross
Radio: 104.7 HD2 / iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) & Tim Benz
 
Game Notes | Record Book | Media Center | TV/Radio Spotter Chart | Listen | Live Stats
 
Opening Tip
 
- The Duquesne University men's basketball team, which has matched its highest win total in 62 years, makes an appearance in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time since 2009 Saturday, March 16, with a 3:30 p.m. tip against No. 7 seed St. Bonaventure in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center.
 
- The Dukes advanced thanks to a 65-57 win over #24 Dayton in the quarterfinals, their first win over a nationally ranked opponent in over 10 years (Feb. 27, 2014, at #10 Saint Louis, 71-64).
 
- Guard Jimmy Clark III scored 16 points and dished out four assists in the win over the Flyers, while guard Dae Dae Grant contributed 11 points. For Grant, his jumper at the 6:11 mark of the first half helped him reach the 1,000-point plateau in two years on the Bluff. He enters Saturday's game against the Bonnies with 2,178 points over the last five seasons, including 1,007 with the Dukes.
 
- The last time Duquesne registered at least 22 wins in a season came during the 1961-62 campaign under Red Manning, when the Dukes finished 22-7 (.759) and appeared in the NIT.    
 
- Duquesne, winners of a season-high six consecutive games, eight of nine and 13 of 16 since an 0-5 start in the Atlantic 10, opened play in the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship with an 83-73 victory over Saint Louis.
 
- The Dukes established a season high in the win over Saint Louis with 22 assists and also committed their fewest turnovers of the year with just five. Duquesne improved to 3-0 this season when handing out at least 20 assists in a game.
 
- 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 a 67-65 win over George Washington to conclude the 2023-24 regular season, 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 Saturday's game leading the Atlantic 10 in free-throw percentage (95.1%) while ranking sixth in the conference in scoring, while guard Jimmy Clark III paces the A-10 in steals with an average of 2.30 per contest. 
 
- When holding opponents to less than 70 points in seven years under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne has posted a record of 73-17 (.811), including a 17-1 (.944) 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 23-42 (.354).
 
- The winner of Saturday's game will advance to the final Sunday, March 17, and will face the winner of Game 12 of the championship, which features No. 5 seed VCU and No. 9 Saint Joseph's. Tip time is 1:00 p.m. from the Barclays Center.
 
Scouting the Bonnies – Saturday marks the 134th game between the two programs in a series that dates to Feb. 13, 1920. St. Bonaventure is Duquesne's most frequent all-time opponent. The average score in the first 133 meetings? DU 71.6, SBU 71.1 (9,524 to 9,457 points, 67-point difference). The 2023-24 season marked the 73rd consecutive year the two met and 19th straight year the two met in a home-and-home. DU owns more conference wins over SBU (35) than any other A-10 school. St. Bonaventure leads the series 70-63, including a 4-2 edge in A-10 Championship meetings, but the Dukes have won the last three contests over the Bonnies. In the last meeting between the two programs, behind a double-double from Fousseyni Drame (17 points, 13 rebounds) and 15 points and eight assists from Jimmy Clark III, the Dukes earned a 75-69 win in Olean, N.Y., at the Reilly Center. Dae Dae Grant added 12 points, including a 6-for-6 performance at the stripe in the final 1:15 to help seal the victory.   
 
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 525-304 (.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.
 
Dayton Leftovers – Duquesne snapped a five-game losing streak to the Flyers with the win ... The Dukes owned a 45-28 advantage on the glass, including a 12-8 cushion in offensive rebounds ... Duquesne grabbed its biggest lead, 14-4, just over eight minutes into the contest ... The Dukes registered six blocks in the victory, including key blocks late from Tre Williams and Jakub Necas ... DaRon Holmes II registered a double-double with game-high totals in points (24) and rebounds (13) and accounted for 46.4 percent of the caroms for Dayton ... Duquesne owned a 30-18 advantage in points in the paint as well as 20-8 cushion in points from reserves ... The Dukes improved to 12-3 (.800) during the 2023-24 season when scoring at least 30 points in the paint ... Forward Fousseyni Drame grabbed a team-high nine rebounds off the bench for the Dukes ... A number of Dukes reached milestones for starts against the Flyers, including Dae Dae Grant (145), Tre Williams (130), Jimmy Clark III (65) and Dusan Mahorcic (40).
 
Rank & File – Duquesne's victory over #24 Dayton in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship snapped an eight-game losing streak against ranked opponents. The last win for the Dukes over a ranked foe came Feb. 27, 2014, a 71-64 triumph at #10 Saint Louis. The victory was also the first for Duquesne in five tries against ranked opposition as part of the Atlantic 10 Championship and marked the first win over a nationally ranked opponent on a neutral court one day shy of 55 years. In a consolation game of the 1969 NCAA Tournament, the Dukes earned a 75-72 victory over #8 St. John's in College Park, Md., March 15, 1969.
 
Defensively Speaking – Thanks to a 65-57 win over #24 Dayton in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship, Duquesne improved to 35-1 (.972) in seven seasons under head coach Keith Dambrot when holding an opponent under 60 points, including 27 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 six-game winning streak, the Dukes are holding opponents to 61.3 points per contest.
 
Clark Kent – Senior guard Jimmy Clark III has saved some of his best basketball for the stretch run of the 2023-24 season as the Dukes look to make an appearance in their first Atlantic 10 Championship final since 2009. Since scoring a season-low four points against Davidson, Clark III has reached double figures 10 times in the last 11 games, producing averages of 16.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.5 steals during that stretch while shooting 44.4 percent (60-for-135) from the field, including 42.9 percent (27-for-63) from beyond the arc. The Dukes, not surprisingly, are 9-2 (.818) during that span and are yielding just 64.8 points per game. Clark III has also led the way during Duquesne's six-game winning streak, averaging 16.8 points while shooting 45.5 percent (35-for-77) from the field and 81 percent (17-for-21) at the free-throw line.
 
Night Time, Dae Time – Senior guard Dae Dae Grant became the 40th student-athlete in program history to join the Duquesne 1,000-Point Club in a 65-57 win over #24 Dayton, as his jumper at the 6:11 mark of the first half helped him reach the plateau. Grant has scored 1,007 points in two seasons with the Dukes, averaging 16.0 points in 63 games on the Bluff. Thanks to his performance against the Flyers, Grant moved past former forward Chuck Cooper (1946-50), who scored exactly 1,000 points during his time at Duquesne. 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). 
 
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 (7.58). Clark III, meanwhile, enters the semifinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship ranked 14th this year in NCAA Division I in steals per game (2.30). His career average, meanwhile, of 1.89 per contest (187 in 99 games) ranks 18th among active NCAA Division I players. Clark III owns 152 steals in two seasons on the Bluff, which ranks 10th in the Duquesne career record book. 
 
Did You Know? The Dukes are 10-0 this season when first to reach 70 points against an opponent and have won 29 consecutive games when turning the trick. In seven seasons under head coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne is 73-7 (.913) 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.
 
Win The Dae - Senior guard Dae Dae Grant eclipsed 400 career assists thanks to a season-high seven in an 83-73 victory over Saint Louis in the second round of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center. Grant enters Saturday's game against the Bonnies with career totals of 2,178 points, 330 three-pointers and 403 assists over the last five seasons. He is one of just four active student-athletes in NCAA Division I to own career totals of at least 2,000 points, 400 assists and 300 three-pointers, joining Max Abmas (Texas), Joseph Girard III (Clemson) and Baylor Scheierman (Creighton).
 
FOLLOW THE DUKES
For the latest news and information on Duquesne men's basketball, follow the Dukes on Twitter (X) and Instagram.

Tweet #GoDukes