Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University men's basketball team closed out a two-game homestand at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Tuesday, falling to Dayton, 82-62. The Dukes, who had their three-game winning streak snapped, dipped to 9-10 (.474) overall during the 2024-25 season, including 4-2 (.667) in the Atlantic 10.
POINTS OF EMPHASIS
The first eight field goals of the game came from beyond the arc, five of which came courtesy of the Flyers. Junior guard
Kareem Rozier tied the contest, 9-9, with a triple at the 15:27 mark, but Dayton used an 11-2 burst to grab a 20-11 lead with 10:36 remaining in the first half. Enoch Cheeks scored eight consecutive points for UD, while his steal and feed to Jacob Conner, who connected from beyond the arc, forced Duquesne to call timeout. The Dukes would close their deficit to 20-15 after a three-pointer from junior forward
Matúš Hronský, but Dayton grabbed its first double-digit advantage, 26-11, after a triple from Nate Santos. The Flyers knocked down nine of their 13 attempts from downtown in the opening 20 minutes of action, including a 3-for-3 performance from Cheeks.
QUOTABLE
"Bad juice all around," Rozier said. "No excuses. We didn't have any good juice at all today. From the start, they hit us in the mouth and we could never quite recover. Missed assignments. Just could never recover. We have to come from the start and be ready to go. It's one of those nights. We didn't punch back until late. Even the start of the second half, we didn't bring enough. It's frustrating because we're way better than that. Tonight, we let ourselves down. We have to come back ready to go in practice tomorrow."
BALL, BASKET
Leading, 44-25, entering the second half, the Flyers hit each of their first seven shots from the field to open the final stanza and pushed their lead to 64-34 with 13:11 to go after a tip-in from Isaac Jack. Overall, UD (13-6 | 3-3 Atlantic 10) finished 13-for-23 (55.6%) from beyond the arc and 32-for-55 (58.2%) from the field. Cheeks led the Flyers with an all-around performance, supplying 23 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Amaël Letang and Javon Bennett each contributed 16 points, while Malachi Smith posted nine assists as Dayton finished with 25 dimes on its 32 field goals.
QUOTABLE
"Everything went wrong didn't it?" head coach
Dru Joyce III said. "There wasn't too much that went right tonight. We just weren't very good tonight. We didn't match the intensity from the outset. I think we were chasing, especially defensively. We didn't move the ball on offense the way we're capable of. We tried to do much and refused the simple play. Tonight we were punished for every mistake we made."
NOTES
Duquesne was led by senior guard
Tre Dinkins III, who scored 14 points and added four assists and a block … Senior
Jahsean Corbett scored the first basket inside the arc of the contest at the 11:34 mark of the first half and finished with eight points and three assists … Rozier finished with eight points, five assists and three steals off the bench … Rozier posted just one turnover, which came with 1:17 to go … Rozier improved his assist-to-turnover ratio during the 2024-25 season to 3.95 … Redshirt junior guard
Cam Crawford finished 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in scoring nine points as the Dukes posted 10 triples overall … Dinkins finished 4-for-7 from deep … Dayton owned a 32-25 cushion on the glass, including 10-9 in offensive rebounds … Duquesne shot 42.9 percent (21-for-49).
UP NEXT
Duquesne takes to the road for its next two games to the close out the month of January, beginning Sunday, Jan. 26, with a Noon tip at Fordham in a game that can be seen on USA Network.
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