Duquesne tops St. Bonaventure in Atlantic 10 semifinals, 1 win from 1st NCAA berth in 47 years

It was Dae Dae’s day.

Riding the hot shooting of Dae Dae Grant, Duquesne surged Saturday into its first Atlantic 10 Tournament championship game appearance in 15 years. The Dukes are one win away from reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years.

“We told y’all, ‘Hop on the Dukes train,’ ” Grant said moments after Duquesne’s 70-60 victory over St. Bonaventure in the A-10 semifinals at Barclays Center in New York. “We believe in each other, and it’s a brotherhood in the city of Pittsburgh. We appreciate everyone who’s been rockin’ with us from Day 1.”

Grant’s 27 points included hitting 6 of 9 3-pointers and fueled the sixth-seeded Dukes (23-11) to their seventh straight victory and third of the season against No. 7 seed St. Bonaventure (20-13).

They’ll meet No. 5 seed VCU (22-12) at 1 p.m. Sunday in one of five conference title games whose winners will complete the field of 32 automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.

“You can’t make this up, man,” said Duquesne’s Jimmy Clark III, whose college career began at VCU but ended when he was dismissed from the program during his sophomore season for an undisclosed off-the-court problem.

Clark, the catalyst for Duquesne with 16 points in its 65-57 victory over No. 24 Dayton in Thursday’s quarterfinals, added 18 against St. Bonaventure. He likened the current scenario to his one season at Northwest Florida State, which won a national junior college championship in 2022.

“It’s a lot the same,” Clark said. “One game after another. Just take things as they come.”

Duquesne played without starting forward Tre Williams, who sat in street clothes with a left shoulder injury. He was expected to be a game-time decision Sunday.

“We just stuck together and gutted out a good win against a great team,” said Grant, who shot 10 of 15 overall.

Jake DiMichele added 12 points for Duquesne, which hasn’t played in an A-10 final since losing to Temple in 2009.

The Dukes won the conference tournament in 1977, when it was known as the Eastern 8, beating Villanova to earn their most recent trip to the NCAA Tournament.

They also lost to Pitt, 64-60, in the 1981 Eastern 8 title game.

Duquesne continued its torrid pace Saturday, winning for the 14th time in 17 games and beating an old nemesis for a third straight time this year.

“It was like a rock fight, just a bunch of tough guys out there just competing hard,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “We just made a few more plays when it mattered than they did. But we’re fortunate to get out of it. We’re happy to get out of it. Hopefully, we’ll have enough juice for (Sunday).”

St. Bonaventure was coming off a grueling 75-74 double-overtime victory over second-seeded Loyola Chicago in the quarters, overcoming a 15-point second-half deficit to force OT.

Against Duquesne, Daryl Banks III led the Bonnies with 14 points, and Assa Essamvous added 10.

Banks was the leading scorer on St. Peter’s Elite Eight team in 2022 as a teammate of Duquesne’s Fousseyni Drame.

Duquesne shot 50.9% overall and 48.6% (10 for 21) from behind the arc. The Dukes limited St. Bonaventure to 6 of 24 from 3.

They led 28-22 at halftime and started to run away to start the second half but had to hold off a Bonnies surge that cut a 13-point lead to four.

An 8-0 run expanded the Dukes’ lead to 36-22 after former OLSH star DiMichele’s baseline floater capped the spree and forced St. Bonaventure into a timeout less than 4 1/2 minutes into the second half.

Duquesne led 50-37 on Grant’s jumper before St. Bonaventure made things interesting, scoring nine unanswered points, including six straight by Banks and Charles Pride’s desperation 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer, to get within 50-46 with 6 1/2 minutes to go.

Grant ended the bleeding at the other end for Duquesne, returning the favor with an acrobatic 3 off the glass.

From there, Duquesne kept the Bonnies at arm’s length.

“We just stuck to the way we’ve played and kept that confidence and that chip on our shoulder to gut out that win,” said Grant.

“I just give big shouts to my teammates, my coaching staff. I couldn’t have done this without them. And (his teammates) were just finding me as well as I was finding the open spots and hitting open shots. Great thanks to them … just all of us, we stuck together as a brotherhood.”

Grant’s 12 first-half points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3 carried Duquesne to its six-point lead at the break

With the outcome seemingly in hand, a wide-open DiMichele made a layup off a feed from Clark to give the Dukes an 11-point lead inside the 1-minute mark and provided more than enough of a cushion.

Grant and his “brotherhood” of teammates would like nothing more than to make Duquesne a name to recall from its rich basketball history of another era.

They can do it with another victory against VCU. Duquesne defeated the Rams, 69-59, on March 5 in Richmond, Virginia, but VCU was without leading scorer Max Shulga, who was out with an injury.

Shulga scored 25 points Saturday in VCU’s 66-60 victory over No. 9 seed Saint Joseph’s in the other A-10 semifinal.

“We’ll just continue to keep our niche on the defensive end,” Grant said. “Coach continues to harp on that. If we keep things in the lower margin of points and we do our thing on the offensive end, we’ll be fine.”