Duquesne controls St. Louis from opening tap, wins behind 31 from Dae Dae Grant

Duquesne is angling for a March peak.

With just five regular-season games remaining, beginning Friday night at Fordham, the Dukes are showing signs of the team many thought could contend for an Atlantic 10 championship.

Dae Dae Grant equaled his season-high of 31 points and edged closer to the nation’s leader in free-throw shooting percentage as Duquesne dominated Saint Louis, 81-66, Tuesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse for its seventh victory in nine games.

The surge comes after Duquesne (16-10, 6-7) began 0-5 in the A-10.

“That’s a miraculous comeback,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “We played hard teams early. We played the best teams in the league early and we were a little snake-bitten. We still have some issues — it’s a three-ring circus sometimes in the last four minutes for us — but we’re working on those things to get better.”

Dambrot said Tuesday’s victory “ended up being a fairly easy win, if there is such a thing with us.

“It’s never easy. We did a good job in the first half, defensively, and then, the second half, we had a few little problems. But we made shots. Every time they came back on us, Dae Dae made a shot.”

Call it a beatdown. Because that’s precisely what it was.

Duquesne, from the opening tip to the final buzzer, was in control against the A-10’s last-place team. Saint Louis (9-17, 2-11) has lost nine of its last 10, including three in a row.

“It’s a pretty good confidence-booster, but it could be a wake-up call, as well,” Grant said. “We need to continue to stay level-headed and know that we’ve got a little bit of our stuff rolling and we have some of our rhythm. That’s really all that matters — what’s going on right now, at the end of February and March.”

Saint Louis trailed at halftime, 41-27, before closing within 11 (43-32) on Sincere Parker’s only field goal of the night. The junior guard came in as the Billikens’ leading scorer (16.8 ppg) after scoring at least 30 points in each of their past three games.

But Parker, who became the first Saint Louis player to do so since first-round NBA draft pick Larry Hughes in 1998, finished with just four points on 1-of-8 shooting.

“The way our team’s playing right now, keep going forward,” said Duquesne’s Jimmy Clark III, who guarded Parker for much of the game and finished with 19 points, four rebounds, seven assists, six steals and a block.

“Don’t even look back. That’s all that matters.”

After Saint Louis got within 11 points early in the second half, Grant scored eight straight points to help Duquesne open up a 51-32 lead.

Grant, who also scored 31 points in a victory over Rhode Island, again fell one point short of tying his career high. He shot 10 for 19, including 6 for 13 from 3-point range, and made all five free-throw attempts to improve to 95.8% (113 for 118).

Butler’s DJ Davis made both his attempts Tuesday in a loss to Villanova and improved to 96.6% (85 for 88).

Jake DiMichele added 11 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and Tre Williams finished with 10 points for Duquesne, which shot 50.9% (28 for 55) overall. The Dukes led by 22 points on two occasions in the second half before settling for their 15-point margin of victory.

Terrence Hargrove led Saint Louis with 17 points. Bradley Ezewiro scored 13 and Gibson Jimerson and Kellen Thames added 12 each for the Billikens, who flirted with a season-low in scoring before surpassing their back-to-back 61s in losses to VCU and Davidson on Jan. 19 and 24.

Duquesne enjoyed a 25-4 lead to start the game when Grant completed a four-point play, draining a long 3-point shot while drawing a foul and converting a free throw with 12:26 left before halftime.

Saint Louis chipped away and cut the deficit to 39-28, but the Billikens could never get it below double digits.

Duquesne joined eight other Atlantic 10 teams with 16 victories as the A-10 entered the night as one of just four Division I conferences with at least eight teams having reached that mark.

The Big 12 boasted 10 and the ACC and SEC also totaled eight each. Duquesne’s inclusion gives the A-10 nine.