With “Big John” back in the house, the Duquesne Dukes welcomed Dayton to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse with a renewed sense of urgency.
On the defensive side, that is.
In the end, however, even with the return of senior forward and second-leading scorer John Hugley IV from a six-game suspension, the Dukes again came up short.
Keonte Jones scored 15 points to lead four Dayton players in double figures, and the Flyers hit their free throws down the stretch to hold off Duquesne, 71-65, for their third straight victory and the Dukes’ third straight loss.
“Close game, they go on a 6-0 run (of free throws) and boom!” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said.
Duquesne trailed 63-61 with 1:33 left when Dayton’s Javon Bennett’s step-back jumper gave the Flyers a four-point advantage.
De’Shayne Montgomery added 13 points, Bennett chipped in 12 and Jauin Simon finished with 10 for Dayton (13-4, 4-0), which then converted 6 of 6 free throws in the final 26 seconds to keep Duquesne at arm’s length.
The Flyers shot 23 for 28 from the stripe.
“They did a good job at the free-throw line,” Joyce said. “It really bolstered them. When you’re 16 for 18 in the second half, that’s a big deal, especially when they only scored 38 points.
The 71 points were the third-lowest total by a Division I opponent against Duquesne, which was allowing teams an Atlantic 10-worst average of 79.1 points per game overall and 91.0 in conference play.
Jimmie Williams and Alex Williams led Duquesne (9-8, 1-3) with 15 points each. Jakub Necas added 12.
The Dukes’ 65 points were their second-lowest in a game this season. Boise State defeated Duquesne, 86-64, on Dec. 10.
“Would have loved to hang 88 points, but every game is going to be a different type of battle,” Joyce said. “We did OK playing in the half court in a slower-paced game. Dayton was just a different challenge tonight.”
The 6-foot-10 Hugley, a transfer from Xavier and a former all-ACC honorable mention at Pitt in 2021-22, played 10 minutes off the bench and scored three points with two rebounds in his return to Duquesne following a suspension in early December for violating team rules.
Through 10 games before being sidelined, Hugley was averaging 15.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
All season long, Duquesne’s defense has faltered while its high-octane offense has put the Dukes among the nation’s leaders in scoring. They entered the game second in the A-10 at 86.3 points per game.
“Dayton may not play very fast, but when you’re good defensively and good in transition the way they are, you have to be very selective about how fast you want to play against them,” Joyce said. “Some of those shots that don’t go in turn into fastbreaks, like you saw tonight.”
Duquesne outscored Dayton from the field, 21-20, but again struggled from the 3-point arc, converting just 7 of 25 attempts (28.0%).
“In the first half, we have to find some more poise,” Joyce said. “We didn’t quite settle in. There were some shots that we had that we didn’t make. Going 1 for 14 from 3 in the first half is probably too many attempts. I thought we rushed a few of them.”
Duquesne’s David Dixon produced a perfect shooting night, going 3 for 3 each from the field and free-throw line. The 6-9 senior also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
Alex Williams, who was 5-for-8 shooting off the bench, figured Duquesne’s second-half defensive showing perhaps was the best of the season.
“I feel like we all had an emphasis on getting stops,” he said. “We really got after it in the second half. We’ve just got to go back to the film and correct our mistakes and get ready for Saturday (at Fordham), because they’re a good team.”
Dayton led for nearly the entire game. The Flyers’ biggest advantage was 11 points in the first half.
Duquesne cut the margin to 51-50 on an Alex Williams 3-point shot with 7:01 left before Dayton built the lead back to eight.
“I don’t think we played terrible tonight,” Joyce said. “We’ve got to play 40 minutes. We have to have some better stretches. Maybe our runs need to be better, but, essentially, that’s what the game come down to.”
With Duquesne’s A-10 record deteriorating with each game, Joyce said it’s not a time to panic. He’s hoping the Dukes will stay patient and stick to a plan.
“It’s just a journey,” he said. “I know this game means a lot in this present moment, but what we understand in our locker room is a process of how we’ve got to make sure we keep improving. We’ve got to keep building to a success of where we can be as a team on the final day of A-10 play. We don’t know how it’s going to unfold, but we do know how we have to control our mindset, our effort, our energy every day and get better. If we stay true to that, the games will start to unfold in the fashion that we believe they would.”