It’s not often college basketball teams encounter a nonconference opponent this late in the season. Duquesne, however, will see one Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

“It was a tough deal for us to get enough games on the schedule,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot was saying before the start of the current season and only after he was able to fill the final opening with Chicago State, the nation’s only Division I team without a conference affiliation.

The vagabond Cougars (11-15), with a victory at then-No. 25 Northwestern on Dec. 14, are set to join the Northeast Conference next season after playing two seasons as a Division I independent.

Before that, Chicago State competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 2013-22, the Great West Conference from 2009-13, the Mid-Continent Conference from 1994-2006 and the East Coast Conference in 1993-94, when the Cougars made the jump to Division I from NAIA.

The ECC and GWC since have disbanded, and the MCC was rebranded as the Summit League in 2007.

“They’re a very formidable opponent,” Dambrot said. “But our guys have come to know that nothing comes easy. We’ve played (one of) the hardest nonconference schedules in the league.”

In the A-10, only the nonconference schedules of No. 21 Dayton and Saint Louis currently compute as tougher than the Dukes’ slate, according to kenpom.com.

Dambrot noted that before Duquesne’s 68-59 victory over Fordham on Saturday at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, the Dukes had played the hardest conference schedule in the league.

It surely showed.

Duquesne (11-8), predicted to finish fourth in the Atlantic 10, was attempting to bury an unexpected 0-5 start in conference play with victories over A-10 opponents St. Bonaventure and Fordham, but it must step away for its final out-of-conference challenge.

Three of the Dukes’ five losses were by no more than five points, including the final two — against Richmond and Saint Joseph’s — which resulted in two-point differences.

In their past two games, Dambrot has seen upward signs in late-game situations, when the Dukes previously had failed to protect leads in losses against Loyola Chicago, Richmond and Saint Joseph’s.

“We moved the ball better. We got a little smarter,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we’re geniuses yet, but we got a little bit smarter in crunch time. We tried not to make it a three-ring circus, so I’m proud we made some headway in that regard.”

Duquesne, in seven seasons under Dambrot, is 31-1 (.969) when holding an opponent under 60 points, including 5-0 this year.

Freshman walk-on Jake DiMichele was a catalyst against Fordham, scoring a career-high 15 points to lead Duquesne.

“Nothing fazes him. He’s my kind of guy,” Dambrot said of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and First Love Academy product.

Senior Jimmy Clark III (15.6 ppg) chipped in 12 points to go with a team-high seven assists for the Dukes, who are 9-3 against nonconference opponents, their losses coming against Princeton, Nebraska at Santa Clara.

Duquesne is led by senior guard Dae Dae Grant (17.6 ppg), who returned on Saturday after a three-game absence while in concussion protocol. He leads the A-10 and ranks third nationally in free-throw shooting percentage at 94.6% (87 for 92) and is on pace to break the school’s single-season mark.

Rick Suder, a graduate of the former Center High School (now Central Valley), holds the record of 91.8% (135 for 147) in 1985-86 and also is the career leader at 87.7 (342 for 390) from 1983-86.

Chicago State comes into UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on a four-game winning streak, but the Cougars’ past two games have resulted in lopsided outcomes against non-Division I opponents.

Duquesne is their second A-10 opponent this season after a 62-53 loss at Loyola Chicago on Nov. 28. Chicago State is led by the 1-2 punch of Wesley Cardet Jr. (18.8 ppg) and Jahsean Corbett (14.6).

Cardet scored 30 points to spark the Cougars’ 75-73 upset of Northwestern in what coach Gerald Gillion labeled as “probably one of the biggest wins in the state of Illinois history.”

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