Don't say Duquesne doesn't dig deep, because that's just what the Dukes did Thursday to gut out a 67-62 win over Richmond in their first game of the Atlantic-10 Championship.
Keith Dambrot knew Duquesne had to get physical and challenge Richmond with a defense that consistently challenged the Spiders' shots and an offense that worked the paint with the Duke's talented front-court.
Both were keys to the team's victory.
"It wasn't a thing of beauty, that's for sure," Dambrot said. "It was an ugly game, and that usually favors us. When it's fluid, (Richmond)'s very good. Our guys battled, they did what they had to do to win the game and I give our guys a lot of credit for that."
Richmond came into the game shooting 47.9 percent on the season, the highest in the Atlantic-10. That percentage helped the Spiders average 75.6 points per game, the second-best in the conference behind No. 1 seed St. Bonaventure.
The Dukes held the Spiders to making just 35 percent of their shots and scoring only 62 points, the second-fewest points the Spiders scored in a game all season. It didn't look like it would go that way the entire game though, as the Spiders shot 41.4 percent from the field and scored 37 points in the first half, looking like they were playing their style of basketball.
That helped the Spiders hold a lead over the Dukes from the 14:37 mark of the first half all the way to 4:34 mark of the second half. The lead would grow as high as 14 points in the first half and was at 11 points with 13:14 to go in the game. The Dukes would stage runs of eight and seven points during that period, but each time the Spiders would push back with a run of their own.
Richmond was living off the solid play of Tyler Burton who had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. But Duquesne got Marcus Weathers to have a double-double of his own with 12 points and 10 rebounds to keep the game within reach.
Then, the Dukes' defense kicked in.
"I told our guys during the game to not let their bad offense effect your defense," Dambrot said. "We just happened to turn it up a notch when it mattered. It was very similar to the last game we played them. They were killing us and we hung around by making a couple plays. Last game, they made a couple plays at the end, this time we made some."
In that previous game, Richmond won 79-72 over Duquesne with a 7-0 run in the final minute of the game. On Thursday, Duquesne held Richmond to just eight points in the final seven minutes of play.
That allowed the Dukes to go on two separation seven-point runs during that time to regain the lead with 3:59 left in the game and hold onto it. The Spiders worked to double-team Weathers and held him without a field goal for the final 12 minutes of play, but that led to a surge from Duquesne's other front-court players Chad Baker and Michael Hughes finishing strong.
"The big thing is we've got two strong monsters in there in Mike Hughes and Marcus Weathers," Dambrot said. "Mike struggled in the first half, but we knew we had to keep going back down to him to win."
Hughes finished with his own double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, including five steals, four assists and making his final four shots of the game. Baker led the team with 16 points, feeding off assists from Hughes late in the game.
Weathers, Hughes and Baker each finished with two blocks, which went into the Dukes' establishing a real defensive presence that made it tough for Richmond to find offensive rhythm late in the game. After the 9:28 mark of the second half, Richmond was held without a field goal until Duquesne was up by seven points with two seconds to go in the game.
That's the Dukes' style of basketball. Dambrot got his bigs to get physical and keep the Spiders' offense in check late in the game. While Weathers, Hughes and Baker each had three fouls at the end of the game, the Dukes were able to manage those personal fouls to keep all of them on the court for the crucial minutes of the game.
It was a hard fought game, and now Dambrot has to get the Dukes to quickly recover and do it again Friday as they'll take on the No. 1 seed of the tournament in St. Bonaventure.