ALTOONA, Pa. -- For the second time in as many games, Duquesne just couldn't get out of its own way en route to being routed to La Salle 85-65 Wednesday evening at the Tom Gola Arena in Philadelphia, Pa. The loss, the sixth in a row at Tom Gola Arena, moves the Dukes to 7-8 overall and 6-7 in the Atlantic 10.
The game and Duquesne's performance were summed up rather succinctly by head coach Keith Dambrot.
"We were bad emotionally. We were bad physically. We were bad mentally. We were just no good," Dambrot said following the game. "Probably as poorly as I've had a team play. I think we kept making excuses, we just have to play better than that."
Basketball is a team game and according to Dambrot nobody came ready to play on this evening. Not even Marcus Weathers who scored 23 points and had four rebounds to lead the Dukes.
"I didn't think he particularly had it either, but he tries. We had some guys try pretty hard," Dambrot said. "We just ran in mud and then we played really dumb, just fast and dumb, inconsistent. We just played like it was the first game we ever played."
That stupidity was magnified with Michael Hughes getting not one, but two technical fouls to get disqualified from the game. His ejection was the turning point of the game as the Dukes were down eight with 13:40 left and well within striking distance of the Explorers.
"I love Mike Hughes, but we just got to quit talking," Dambrot said. "We're not going to play very well without him. We had a heart to heart after the game. I told him the truth and it was multiple guys, we just didn't have it."
After his departure, La Salle outscored Duquesne 39-25 and the lead never fell below double digits for the remainder of the game. Of course, it wasn't just Hughes who bears responsibility, it was the team and every member of the team who should shoulder the blame for this lopsided disaster.
That aforementioned heart to heart was desperately needed for a team that coming into the game was on the cusp of history with a victory over the Explorers as the team had an opportunity to make it three winning regular seasons in a row for the first time in program history.
Now, the Dukes are limping into the final game of the regular season with the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament looming next week. This all comes after Duquesne went 18 games between games due to Covid issues.
"I'm not making any excuses it's just been a weird year. You can't judge what layoffs does to different teams, We played decent against Richmond and we were no good tonight. We were at least functional in the first half. Once we lost Michael we went in the toilet."
It's far from ideal to be soul searching and unsure of what's next entering the latter stages of the year and especially so with the opportunities the Dukes have in front of them. It's going to take quite a bit to get to where Dambrot and company want to go, the NCAA Tournament, which would be the first such trip in program history.
To do so, the Dukes are going to need to find themselves and while it's late in the season, it's not too late for Duquesne to find its identity on the court. A good place to start is maturing, something the Dukes haven't quite been good at thus far.
"We talked about trust, loyalty and commitment. We defined those terms starting with commitment," Dambrot said. "You find out who's really committed. We just have to be more mature. We weren't very mature tonight. We just let things snowball on us. We weren't good in any aspect."
Along with the mental and emotional aspects of the game, Duquesne needs Hughes to be on his game night in and night out for the remainder of the season as he's what makes the Dukes tick. Hughes is the glue that holds the team together despite his behavior and sometimes letting his emotions take control.
"He just lost it emotionally. I'm not mad at him, he just can't do that. I've got a lot of respect for the year he's had," Dambrot said. "We got to keep counseling him, we got to stay behind him because that's part of commitment too, but we can't play without him either. We're not a very good team when he doesn't play, we're just run of the mill."
Dambrot is absolutely right, Duquesne is just an average team when Hughes isn't available and tonight it showed as the lead kept climbing for the Explorers when Hughes exited the game. However, as good as Hughes makes the Dukes, they're going to need more from everybody as the tournament begins.
If they don't get that come tournament time, it's going to be another Duquesne season ending in disappointment.
"If you don't come ready to play and you're not quite good emotionally and mentally that's going to happen to you," Dambrot said.
The Dukes didn't do that against La Salle and it showed. How they respond is yet to be determined, but this loss could be the wakeup call Duquesne didn't necessarily want, but needed.
"You know how kids are, most of them will be fine, we may have a guy or two that isn't very good.," Dambrot said. It's not ideal, but each game is a mutually exclusive event and so is each practice so maybe a good old fashioned butt-kicking might be good for them or maybe it wont be. We're going to find out how much fight they really have."
• it was an ugly game for both sides with there being a combined 39 turnovers between the participants with La Salle getting a leg up there too with 22 compared to 17 for the Dukes. The Explorers turned those turnovers into 16 points while Duquesne was able to add 14 points of its own off turnovers.
"We had our opportunities, we just didn't play good," Dambrot said. "We just didn't have it. It's probably one of the worst games we ever played, it happens some times...just got to fix the problem, we just didn't play very good."
• Dambrot is big on having a deep rotation, but even with that he felt he could have gotten deeper into the bench against La Salle. This is despite him using 10 players and seven of them playing 17 or more minutes.
"I think we got tired, you know, we probably needed to play more bench. We just didn't have a good performance from anybody," Dambrot said. "Our guard play was bad, our post play was bad, we just didn't play any good. We didn't have it emotionally, maturity wise, or physically. We were bad in all three areas. That's on me. I take full responsibility for it. It's been a weird year, just a hard year to judge anything. Nothing surprises me, simple as that. I've been around this game a long time, but nothing surprises me this year."
• While Weathers paced Duquesne with 23 points, the Dukes got 11 points out of both Toby Okani and Andre Harris. Those three made up 45 of Duquesne's 65 points against the Explorers. On the night, the Dukes were an abysmal 39.3 percent from the field going 24-for-61 including an 11-for-31 performance in the second half.
• Duquesne will host Rhode Island Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The good news for the Dukes is they are undefeated in their new home. The bad news is it's been nearly a month since they've actually played there.
