Duquesne lets 2nd-half lead slip away in loss to Santa Clara

Duquesne was hoping for an early Christmas present Saturday in Las Vegas, but the Dukes were more in a giving mood.

Adama Bal and Carlos Marshall Jr. scored 19 points apiece, and Santa Clara rallied in the second half to beat Duquesne, 81-73, at Orleans Arena in suburban Paradise, Nev., in the Dukes’ second consecutive neutral-site game.

The Broncos outscored the Dukes, 17-4, in the final 4 minutes, 19 seconds to pull away and end Duquesne’s four-game winning streak.

“We didn’t make any plays, and they made them,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said, referring to the Dukes’ late-game cold spell. “It’s a shame, because we had the game, and we let it slip away.”

Duquesne on Monday squeaked by Bradley, 69-67, at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Dambrot’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. This time, the Dukes weren’t as fortunate.

“We needed to be more mature, and we weren’t today,” Dambrot said. “I guess we didn’t like all the pushing and shoving.”

The teams were called for a combined 51 fouls, 29 against Duquesne, which struggled at the free-throw line, making 19 of 31 for 61.3%.

“No excuses. We got tired,” Dambrot said.

Duquesne arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday after a 4 1/2-hour commercial flight from Pittsburgh, and Santa Clara chartered the short 45-minute trip Friday.

The Dukes (8-3) were scheduled to take a Christmas break before returning to their campus to prepare for their next game Saturday afternoon at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse against Cleary, a first-year NAIA program coached by former Duquesne assistant Carl Thomas.

Santa Clara (9-5), which is coached by Penn Hills native Herb Sendek, came in having beaten three Power 5 teams from the Pac 12: Oregon, Stanford and Washington State. The Broncos also received 12 points from Brenton Knapper and shot 49.1% (26 for 53) overall.

From the 3-point arc, Santa Clara finished 8 for 15 (53.3%).

Dae Dae Grant scored a career-high 32 points to pace Duquesne, which shot 38.9% (21 for 54) overall and made 12 of 32 3-point shots (37.5%).

Grant, who scored 20 first-half points as Duquesne enjoyed a 37-36 lead at the break, finished 9 for 18 shooting, including 7 for 14 from behind the arc but just 2 of 7 in the second half.

Despite Duquesne’s free-throw woes, Grant made all seven of his attempts to push his season percentage to 94.5% (69 for 73).

Jimmy Clark III added 14 points for the Dukes but made just 4 of 14 attempts. Clark, the team’s second-leading scorer, made only 3 of 9 3-point attempts and was 3 for 7 from the free-throw line.

“Those guys (Grant, 38 minutes) and Clark (33) were a little tired at the end,” Dambrot said of his star backcourt mates. “If Jimmy plays his normal game, we have a much better chance of winning.”

The game marked the much-anticipated Duquesne debut of Dusan Mahorcic, the N.C. State transfer who missed the Dukes’ first 10 games while recovering from offseason knee surgery, his second in three years.

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Mahorcic played five minutes and scored two points on free throws to go with two rebounds.

He was injured on Dec. 6, 2022, in N.C. State’s game against Coppin State and spent more than a year rebhabbing his right knee.

Mahorcic was sidelined the first time while at Utah in a game against BYU on Nov. 30, 2021.

“He had a minute limit,” Dambrot said. “For the little time he was out there, he did some good things. He’s a big, strong guy.”

Duquesne 6-9 sophomore David Dixon, who scored the Dukes’ winning shot in the final second against Bradley, fouled out in the second half after playing a total of just nine minutes. He finished with four points, one rebound and no blocks.

“That hurt us because he played well when he was in there,” Dambrot said. “We just couldn’t keep him on the floor.”

Leading by a point at halftime on Clark’s 3-point shot with 1 second left in the first half, Duquesne managed to stretch the margin to 50-42 on consecutive 3-point shots by Grant and Kareem Rozier 4 1/2 minutes into the second half.

The Dukes used a 7-1 run to take a 64-56 advantage at the 9:08 mark. But they couldn’t sustain the momentum, allowing Santa Clara back into it. Eight consecutive points pulled the Broncos into a 64-64 tie with 6:49 to go on 1 of 2 free throws by Jake Ensminger.

Freshman Jakub Necas’ dunk put Duquesne back in charge 66-64 at the 5:43 mark, but Santa Clara came back to take its first lead of the second half on two free throws by Emsminger, and the Broncos never again trailed.

Seconds later, Marshall added a pair from the line for Santa Clara before Grant connected twice for Duquesne.

But Bal’s 3-pointer pushed the Santa Clara lead to 75-71, and Duquesne couldn’t recover.

“We made mistakes, defensively, early in the game,” Dambrot said. “Then, when we did get the lead, we just couldn’t hold on. We tried hard, but we just didn’t have it at the end.”