OMAHA, Neb. -- No. 11-seed Duquesne achieved another piece of history Thursday by beating No. 6-seed BYU, 71-67, at the CHI Health Center for its first NCAA Tournament win as a program since 1969.
The Dukes and Keith Dambrot now have a taller task ahead of them with No. 3-seed Illinois, the champion of the Big Ten Tournament. The Fighting Illini beat No. 14-seed Morehead State, 85-69, in their opening matchup of this tournament.
The Dukes and Fighting Illini will tip off the second round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday at 8:40 p.m. Eastern at the CHI Health Center. The winner will advance to the East Region semifinal in Boston next weekend.
Here is how the teams stack up:
GUARDS
• Duquesne: Dae Dae Grant, Jimmy Clark III, Jake DiMichele, Kareem Rozier, Kailon Nicholls, Ethan Anish, Seamus McDermott, Lucas Perusek.
Grant paced Duquesne with 19 points, and he made 3 of 8 from 3-point range in the Dukes' win over BYU. Clark was relatively kept in check before scoring nine of his 11 points in the second half, including five consecutive points over the stretch of 1:02 near the end of the game. DiMichele contributed eight points and made 2 of 3 3s, and Rozier pitched in two points and two assists in 15 bench minutes.
• Illinois: Terrence Shannon Jr., Ty Rodgers, Luke Goode, Justin Harmon, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, Niccolo Moretti, AJ Redd, Max Williams.
The 6-foot-6 Shannon is the third-leading scorer in all of college basketball. He averages 23.0 points per game. In the Fighting Illini's win over Morehead State, Shannon posted 26 points while making 9 of 16 from the field and 3 of 9 3s.
"He's a great one-on-one scorer," Rozier said of Shannon. "He can score at all three levels, but mainly him getting downhill in transition, he's very dangerous. I think that getting him in the halfcourt will help us because we're such a great halfcourt defensive team."
Rodgers did not score and played in just 13 minutes against Morehead State. Goode made 3 of 4 3s for nine points and added four rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, Harmon missed both of his field-goal attempts, and Gibbs-Lawthorn added a pair of 3s Thursday.
FORWARDS/CENTERS
• Duquesne: David Dixon, Fousseyni Drame, Andrei Savrasov, Dusan Mahorcic, Tre Williams, Hassan Drame, Jakub Necas, Halil Barre, Matúš Hronský, Andy Barba.
Drame faced early foul trouble and played just 17 minutes, but he still paced the Dukes' rebounding effort with eight against BYU. He added eight points and made all three of his field-goal attempts and a pair of free throws. Dixon posted seven points, grabbed four boards, and blocked three shots.
The star of the Dukes' frontcourt Thursday was the true freshman Necas, who posted career-highs in points (12), rebounds (six), blocks (three), minutes (30), and 3-pointers made (2). Necas' previous best scoring output was his 10 points against St. Joseph's -- in a then-career-high 20 minutes -- on Feb. 17.
"I felt like I had good momentum," Necas said after Thursday's game. "In the tournament, I'm just trying to keep going, just play basketball and enjoy every moment because nobody expected us to be here. So we're going to show our best, and I want to just, you know, be best for myself and for my team. I'm trying to help as much as I can."
Williams (shoulder) will not be available against the Fighting Illini.
• Illinois: Coleman Hawkins, Marcus Domask, Quincy Guerrier, Dain Dainja, Amani Hansberry.
If not Shannon, Illinois will run through its forwards. The 6-foot-9 Dainja dominated against Morehead State off the bench with 21 points and eight rebounds while making all nine of his field-goal attempts in 23 minutes. Domask registered a triple-double of 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in 36 minutes.
"It's been great to see him drawing double-teams, which gets people open," Hawkins said of Domask. "I feel like he makes the right play the majority of the time. He gets the ball out when he needs to. Ultimately, it's led to back-side threes and step-in threes for me and for other guys, so it's been great to see that. If we don't have a shot, we're playing in rotation, and we're able to rip-drive, spray it to other people. It's been great to see him take advantage of that opportunity, and he hasn't shied away from it, so I'm proud of him."
Hawkins added 10 points, four rebounds, and five assists. Guerrier played in just 12 minutes and did not score against Morehead State.
HEAD COACH
• Duquesne: Keith Dambrot
Dambrot is 116-95 in his seven seasons as the Dukes head coach. Between his years at Central Michigan, Akron, and Duquesne, Dambrot is 441-268. He guided Akron to three NCAA Tournament appearances and six Mid-American Conference regular-season championships in 13 seasons, and his final act before retiring is bringing the Dukes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 years. His win over BYU Thursday was his firs career win in the NCAA Tournament.
His 116 wins rank fourth on the Dukes' all-time list. He has guided Duquesne to three seasons of 20 or more wins. The Dukes went 21-9 in the 2019-'20 season and were the No. 6-seed in the A10 Tournament, but the second-round games and the rest of the A10 Tournament were canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Illinois: Brad Underwood
It took a couple of season to build it, but Underwood has transformed Illinois into one of the most respected programs in the nation over the last four seasons. The Fighting Illini are playing in their fourth straight NCAA Tournament, but have not made it to a regional semifinal over their previous three tries.
Underwood, who once coached under Bob Huggins, is 249-114 overall as a Division I coach. He spent three seasons coaching Stephen F. Austin and one at Oklahoma State before arriving in Champaign, Ill., in 2017. Underwood took Oklahoma State to the NCAA Tournament in his lone season in Stillwater, and he guided Stephen F. Austin to three straight regular-season and conference tournament titles in the Southland. He has won 20 or more games nine times out of his 11 seasons as a Division I coach. Stephen F. Austin went 32-3 in 2014 and upset No. 5-seed VCU in the NCAA Tournament, and it went 28-6 and upset No. 3-seed West Virginia in the 2016 NCAA Tournament under Underwood's guidance.
"I followed Bob Huggins at Akron, and Bob helped me get almost every job that I have ever gotten throughout my career, and Brad is really a disciple of Bob Huggins," Dambrot said. "We've known each other because of that. Andy Kennedy and Frank Martin and all of us are pretty much disciples. Even though I never coached with Bob, a lot of the things we do are related to Bob. A lot of respect for him as a coach and as a human being. (Huggins is) a little misunderstood. That's why I have great respect for coach Underwood. I know that they're very close."
TEAM METRICS
• Overall record: DUQ 25-11, ILL 27-8.
• NCAA NET ranking: DUQ 80, ILL 13.
• Quadrant 1 record: DUQ 2-3, ILL 8-6.
• KenPom ranking: DUQ 80, ILL 10.
• Strength of schedule: DUQ 94, ILL 20.
• Points scored per 100 possessions: DUQ 107.2, ILL 126.0.
• Points allowed per 100 possessions: DUQ 97.1, ILL 101.6.
• Points scored per game: DUQ 70.8, ILL 84.4.
• Points allowed per game: DUQ 66.1, ILL 73.7.
• Field-goal percentage: DUQ 43.7%, ILL 47.3%.
• 3-point percentage: DUQ 34.1%, ILL 35.3%.
• Rebounds per game: DUQ 35.0, ILL 41.2.
• Assists per game: DUQ 13.4, ILL 13.3.
• Turnovers per game: DUQ 11.8, ILL 10.7.
• Steals per game: DUQ 7.6, ILL 4.3.
• Blocks per game: DUQ 4.4, ILL 3.9.
