Duquesne can't complete comeback in opener vs. Lipscomb

Dru Joyce III is 0-1 as a college basketball coach. So, too, are his defending Atlantic 10 champion Duquesne Dukes after a deflating 77-72 loss to Lipscomb kicked off a new season Monday night.

It was billed as “Duquesne Basketball Palooza,” a season-opening event featuring a doubleheader at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, where a festive atmosphere broke out following Duquesne’s come-from-behind, 10-point women’s victory over Princeton in the first game.

And it carried through the lead-up into the men’s nightcap featuring Duquesne and Lipscomb — the Atlantic 10 vs. the Atlantic Sun — developing into a celebration of last season’s first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Dukes in ages.

With former coach Keith Dambrot, the architect of that ferocious 25-12 team, sitting in a luxury suite high above the court, the ball went up and Duquesne kicked off his protege Joyce’s head coaching era.

Joyce not only played for Dambrot in high school and college, both times in Akron, Ohio — at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and the University of Akron — but he also served as Dambrot’s associate head coach at Duquesne for two seasons before taking over the program this season following Dambrot’s retirement.

“Listen,” Joyce said following the Dukes’ five-point loss, “I can’t get away from the guy. We’ll have our conversations, for sure. Definitely.”

Despite all the hoopla, the night was a colossal dud for Joyce and the Dukes, who trailed from start to finish and stumbled against hot-shooting Lipscomb behind Jacob Ognacevic’s 30 points.

“It’s hard to sit here and say, ‘I enjoyed it,’” Joyce said, “because we were on the wrong side of the scoreboard. I’ll just challenge myself, ‘How can I be better? How can I get my team over the hump? How can I pull them out of a tough spot?’”

Lipscomb (1-0), the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Sun championship, shot 52.1% (25 for 48), led by Ognacevic’s 10-of-18 showing. The Bisons also connected on 9 of 21 3-point shots (42.9%).

After trailing by double digits for much of the contest — Lipscomb bolted to a 15-2 lead in the first 5 1/2 minutes — the closest Duquesne (0-1) would get was 65-62 on a Tre Dinkins III 3-point shot with 5 minutes, 38 seconds remaining.

“When you cut it to three like that in the second half, winning teams win those kinds of games,” Duquesne junior guard Kareem Rozier said. “We had a lot of chances. We just couldn’t score down the stretch.”

Will Pruitt added 15 points and Gyasi Powell finished with 12 for Lipscomb, which returned nine players and two starters from a team last season that gave fits to a pair of Power 5 schools, defeating Florida State and losing by three points to Arkansas.

“There’s just a lot of growth that still needs to happen,” Joyce said. “We’re a new team. This is everyone’s first year playing for me, no matter if they’ve been here before. No matter if I was their assistant coach here before. It’s going to take some time to jell.”

Duquesne’s roster includes seven new transfers, five of whom were available for its opener.

Dinkins, one of them, led the Dukes with 16 points. Two others — Maximus Edwards with 14 and Jahsean Corbett with 12 — also were in double figures.

Duquesne, which was coming off just its second A-10 championship and first since 1977, shot 45.2% (28 for 62) but was just 30.0% (6 for 20) from 3-point range and 52.6% (10 for 19) from the foul line.

“If we step up and make some free throws in the first half, that score looks a little bit different,” Joyce said, “And really, throughout the game, we shot poorly from the free-throw line and the 3-point line.”

After Lipscomb built a lead as large as 18 points in the first half, Duquesne chipped away and trailed at halftime 41-34.

When the Dukes cut the deficit to three in the second half, their fans, led by a larger-than-normal student section, were rocking. But missed shots and turnovers silenced the joint.

Said Joyce: “What I do like most about our team is we got hit right in the mouth early at home. We were down big. Nothing was going our way and everything seemed to be going in their favor. But we stuck together. We raised our level of play. We found our game defensively, which allowed things to open up for us offensively. And we fought.”

At halftime, former Duquesne great Jarrett Durham was honored following his retirement as color analyst for 14 seasons with play-by-play man Ray Goss on Duquesne radio broadcasts.

The Dukes move on to their next test Friday night in Trenton, N.J., against Princeton in the Deborah Heart and Lung Center Jersey Jam.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who’ve played a lot of games,” Rozier said. “It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

In the women’s game, Megan McConnell scored a career-high 24 points and Duquesne rallied from a seven-point, third-quarter deficit to beat Princeton, 76-66.

The Dukes (1-0) trailed 59-52 with 1:26 remaining in the third quarter and entered the fourth down 62-56 before holding Princeton scoreless for 7:26 while using a 14-0 run to surge ahead 70-62 with 2:34 left.

Princeton (0-1) shot just 7% (1 for 14) in the fourth quarter.

“I’m obviously really thrilled,” Duquesne coach Dan Burt said. “This is a statement win for our program in Game 1, and we have a lot more basketball to play this season. This is certainly one of the better wins that we’ve had in my lengthy, lengthy time here at Duquesne.”

In last season’s opener, Princeton defeated Duquesne, 65-57, on its way to a record of 25-5, the Ivy League championship and a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where the Tigers lost to West Virginia, 63-53, in the first round.

Jerni Kiaku and Nadia Moore added 10 points apiece for Duquesne, which posted a 21-13 record last season while advancing to the WNIT, where the Dukes lost to Purdue, 71-50, in a second-round game.