Duquesne grinds out victory over Loyola Chicago to end 5-game skid

A 13-point victory? With the way Duquesne’s offense was broken, how did that happen?

The Dukes went scoreless for nearly 7 1/2 minutes to open the second half Saturday, missing their first 11 shots along the way, yet they recovered on the strength of their defense and beat Loyola Chicago, 69-56, at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse to end a five-game losing streak.

“We weren’t playing bad basketball,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said. “Sometimes that’s more important than watching the scoreboard. We still had a lead for the longest time, it seemed. I just tried to implore them to get to the next play. We were tough, defensively, throughout the game.”

Eventually, Duquesne regained its scoring touch and finally pulled away near the end to turn a close game into a 13-point victory.

“We did a good job of just finishing the game down the stretch,” said Duquesne’s Cam Crawford, whose 3-pointer in 1 1/2 minutes left gave Duquesne an 11-point lead.

Tre Dinkins III scored 12 points, Crawford added 11 and David Dixon and Jakub Necas finished with 10 apiece for Duquesne (10-14, 5-6 Atlantic 10). The Dukes are off for six days before a trip to Dayton on Saturday in a rematch of the Flyers’ 82-62 rout of the Dukes on Jan. 21 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

“I took that a little personally when we got beat here last time,” Necas said, “so I’m excited for the game. I want to prepare myself as much as I can. I believe if we share the ball and play together and play tough defense we can beat anybody in this league.

“Dayton is going to be huge. Not going to lie.”

Against Loyola Chicago, Joyce said the Dukes “played to our (defensive) principles, and it paid off.”

With his team clinging to a three-point lead with less than 4 minutes remaining, Dixon danced backwards, held his hand high with three fingers up to the crowd and then motioned for some noise.

The Duquesne big man buried just his fifth 3-point shot of the season (he is 5 for 15) to give the Dukes a 61-55 advantage and spark an 11-1 run to end the game.

With as tightly contested as this one was played, it seemed like an insurmountable margin for the visiting Ramblers.

And it was.

Crawford called Dixon’s shot “huge” but joked that he needs to work on improving his humility.

“I told him, ‘Act like you’ve been here before.’ He’s getting there,” Crawford said with a laugh.

Long after the outcome, Dixon wore headphones inside the home arena while signing autographs and mingling with lingering fans.

Possessing a dry sense of humor, Dixon has become a fan favorite.

“That shot he made was huge,” Crawford said. “I feel like any 3 Dave hits is huge. A lot of teams don’t respect his 3-point shot. But he works on it. He’s confident in it. When Dave hits a shot like that, it kind of takes the life out of a team.”

His 3-pointer in an earlier overtime victory over Saint Joseph’s broke a tie late in the extra period and propelled Duquesne to a victory.

“Dave needed a bounce-back,” Joyce said. “He didn’t perform well in his last game (73-68 loss at Richmond on Wednesday). He played with a different type of mentality tonight, a different energy. He brought a physical presence in the interior.”

Dixon also grabbed nine of Duquesne’s 37 rebounds — the Dukes held a slim two-rebound edge — and Necas blocked three shots.

After Dixon’s rare 3-pointer, Dinkins followed with a jumper, and Crawford added that 3-pointer to give the Dukes a 66-55 advantage.

Dixon then dunked, and Necas blocked a shot at the other end to add an exclamation point.

Des Watson led Loyola Chicago (14-9, 5-5) with 14 points. Sheldon Edwards Jr. added 11, and Miles Rubin chipped in 10 for the Ramblers, who had won two in a row.

Duquesne led by as many as nine points in the first half and settled for a 34-27 advantage at the break after going on a 7-2 run, capped by Necas’ desperation 3-pointer with 1 second left and just before the shot clock expired.

The second half started out resembling a mud wrestling scene. Neither team was able to score well, but Loyola Chicago eventually benefitted from Duquesne’s offensive anemia and took a 36-35 lead on Watson’s short jumper.

Kareem Rozier’s 3-point shot followed with 12:33 to go and was Duquesne’s first points of the second half.

“I don’t think we allowed our offense to affect our mood tonight,” Joyce said. “We went 7 1/2 minutes without scoring a basket. That’s challenging. I applaud my guys because they never dropped their head. They just kept playing.”