Duquesne gave Nebraska, the only Power Five conference opponent on its schedule, a fight Wednesday night, but the Dukes couldn’t overcome their foul trouble and stumbled to their second loss of the year.
Keisei Tominaga scored 23 points, Juwan Gary added 20 and Nebraska rallied from a two-point halftime deficit to hand foul-plagued Duquesne an 89-79 loss in the Dukes’ final game of the Cornhusker Classic in Lincoln, Neb.
The Cornhuskers are off to their first 6-0 start in Fred Hoiberg’s five years as their coach after sweeping games with Rider, Stony Brook and Duquesne in the four-team, round-robin tournament. The Dukes beat Rider and Stony Brook at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse to finish second.
“Our foul trouble killed us,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “If we don’t have the foul trouble, I think it’s a different game. We have good leadership, but we have to be more disciplined.”
Nebraska shot 28 for 31 from the free-throw line compared to 15 for 17 for Duquesne, which played large portions of the game without Jimmy Clark III — their second-leading scorer — and point guard Kareem Rozier.
Duquesne’s 28 field goals were two more than Nebraska’s total. The Dukes shot 44.4% overall, Nebraska 49.1%.
Clark and David Dixon fouled out for the Dukes, while Rozier, who scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting (4 for 8 from 3-point range) finished with four fouls.
“We played hard, but not necessarily smart,” Dambrot said.
Dae Dae Grant led Duquesne (4-2) with 24 points on 7-of-16 shooting. But he was just 1 of 8 from behind the arc, where Duquesne finished an abysmal 8 for 29 (27.6%).
Josiah Allick added 12 points, Brice Williams chipped in 11, and Rienk Mast finished with 10 for Nebraska, which placed five players in double figures but was outrebounded by Duquesne, 37-29.
Clark (15 points) and Fousseyni Drame (12) also scored in double figures for Duquesne. Drame led the Dukes with eight boards.
Nebraska, coming off an 84-63 victory over Oregon State on Saturday, pulled away quickly to take control in the second half, scoring on its first 16 possessions after the break and led, 68-54, with 10:22 left after a 13-0 run.
The Huskers’ lead reached 17 at 77-60 on a pair of free throws by Mast with 6:57 remaining.
But Duquesne rallied with a 10-0 run to close within 77-70 with 4:24 to go following a Grant jumper that forced Nebraska into a timeout.
Duquesne, which returns home Wednesday to face UC Irvine at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, led for most of the first half and held on for a 39-37 halftime advantage.
“We played a pretty good first half,” Dambrot said. “Our ball movement was really good. We did a great job of sharing the ball, (but) we have to get the ball inside more.”
But foul trouble dogged the Dukes, with Clark fouling out on a technical after he protested a non-call on a layup with 2:11 remaining to pull Duquesne within 83-76.
Dambrot, visibly upset late in the second half, was whistled in the final minute for Duquesne’s second technical after challenging an official’s calls.
After Duquesne cut the Nebraska margin to six points on a Clark layup with 3:55 to go, the Huskers pushed the lead back to double digits and held on to stay unbeaten.
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