Dukes finish strong to defeat Fordham
Williams Jr. scores five points, grabs key rebound in final two minutes
Had you missed the game and just attended Keith Dambrot’s postgame news conference, you might have gotten the impression Duquesne had lost to Fordham instead of winning its first Atlantic 10 game of the season, 66-61.
In the final two minutes of play, sophomore swingman Eric Williams Jr. had a putback dunk, pulled down a key rebound and made three free throws to help the Dukes to victory, but in the secondyear coach’s eyes, his team’s efforts Wednesday weren’t satisfactory.
“Most people say you should enjoy the wins, but I’m a guy that is built on high standards and my expectation level is never going to change, and that just wasn’t good enough,” Dambrot said. “We let stuff bother us, emotionally we became disengaged, we’re immature. We played good enough defensively at times and then we’d make some stupid plays and allow them to shoot a 3 to keep them in the game. We just have to play better than that, simple as that.”
It wasn’t the smoothest game for the Dukes, who lost the lead with just under 10 minutes to play in the second half.
Still, Williams registered his fifth double-double of the season with 16 points (14 second-half) and 13 rebounds and the Dukes move to 10-5 (11 Atlantic 10) while the Fordham fell to 9-6 (0-2).
Fordham outrebounded Duquesne, 39-38, with the Rams grabbing 15 offensive boards. The Dukes shot 46.8 percent to the Rams’ 36.4 percent.
“Eric Williams made some good plays, but it wasn’t championship quality preciseness,” Dambrot said. “Until we get championship quality preciseness, I’m not going to be happy. I’m not lowering my expectations, period. I’m not. So something’s got to give … it’s my job to teach them and they’ve got to get on board.”
Duquesne made 4 of 5 field goals to close out the first half with a 31-26 lead, but in the second half, the Rams went on a 7-2 run and trailed, 43-41, with 11:13 to play.
Later, sophomore center Mike Hughes, who was sick and played just 13 minutes, hit Williams for an open dunk, but Fordham senior forward David Pekarek responded with a 3-pointer to give the Rams their first lead of the second half.
“We were just a little sluggish,” Williams said. “Not even that we were sluggish, just … second-chance points, a lot of tips, 50-50 loose balls, just a lot of uncharacteristic things. So we had to come out and just play the second half, I think we played better, but we still had some spurts. We’ve still got to play better and improve, I think.”
Duquesne fought back and led, 55-51, after back-toback jump shots by Williams and sophomore forward Marcus Weathers, who had 12 points and 3 rebounds. Williams had a put-back dunk and was fouled, making his free throw to stretch the lead to 62-56 before Fordham’s Nick Honor, who entered the game leading the team with 16.4 points per game, made a 3 to make it a 3-point game.
Freshman point guard Sincere Carry, who had 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers, guarded Honor for most of the game, holding him to 11 points.
After a missed Fordham layup with less than a minute to go, sophomore guard Tavian Dunn-Martin missed a 3-pointer, but Williams grabbed a key rebound and was fouled, making both free throws to give the Dukes a 64-59 lead with 17.9 seconds on the clock. Sophomore guard Frankie Hughes added two more free throws to seal the win.
Freshman forward Amari Kelly scored a career-high 11 points, to go with 4 rebounds.
Despite the win, Dambrot’s biggest gripe of the game, he said, was the team’s lack of enthusiasm.
“They act like they’re digging ditches sometimes,” he said. “Let’s have some enthusiasm and some pizzazz to us. And look, it’s a long season, and every team goes through it, but over break, we’ve been … we’ve got to practice better. Until we practice better, we’re not going to be as good as we should.”