Duquesne uses long-range shots to dominate St. Bonaventure

Remember those early-season losses — many at home — to the likes of Hampton, Lipscomb, Maine, Saint Peter’s and others? Duquesne’s horrid start to the men’s basketball season under first-year coach Dru Joyce III was atrocious.

So, what’s changed?

“I hold myself accountable,” Joyce said Saturday after the surging Dukes won for the seventh time in eight games, a 75-57 rout of St. Bonaventure at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The Dukes (9-9, 4-1) moved within a half-game of first place in the Atlantic 10 standings.

“I wasn’t great. I wasn’t very good early in games,” Joyce said. “It was my first time out there managing the game, managing the plays. I made various mistakes that I had to go back and watch. That’s not the guys’ fault. That one’s on me.

“The same way I challenged my players to be better, and my staff, I challenged myself, and I think that’s the biggest thing. We accepted the challenge of, ‘This isn’t right. We have to fix it. We have to accept that we aren’t very good,’ and it was obvious. But I didn’t let them fall on the sword because I had to be better, too.”

Since a forgettable 0-6 start, Duquesne slowly has gotten on track and returned to a form similar to that of last season’s 25-win team that garnered the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1977.

Fear the 3-pointer.

As Duquesne’s incoming transfers continue to mesh with the returning players from that A-10 Tournament championship team, Joyce and his staff are guiding the team to a similar level of chemistry, and it’s showing as the season wears on.

“I just think it’s us continuing to build and work and stay in the moment,” Joyce said. “Not thinking about what’s ahead of us — opportunities or anything like that — just being ready for the one opportunity that we had today, and that was the St. Bonaventure game.”

What’s ahead is a date with Dayton on Tuesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The Flyers, who had slumped lately but ended a three-game losing streak with Saturday’s 83-81 overtime victory over Loyola Chicago, own wins over No. 7 Marquette and No. 14 Connecticut. Among their losses are by 5 to No. 2 Iowa State and by 2 to then-No. 12 North Carolina, which has fallen out of the rankings.

For now, opposing teams of Duquesne are taking note of that game-changing 3-point shot that has served the Dukes well.

For the second game in a row, Maximus Edwards came off the bench to provide a spark from long range, scoring 17 points — 15 on 3-pointers — and Duquesne sizzled from behind the arc to run past short-handed St. Bonaventure.

Duquesne finished with a season-high-tying 14 for 34 from 3-point range for 41.2.%, three days after Edwards scored a season-high 22, including 3 of 5 from behind the arc, in the Dukes’ 73-65 victory at George Washington on Wednesday.

The Dukes reached at least 10 3-pointers in a game for the sixth time in their past nine and are averaging 11.1 during the stretch.

Cam Crawford, who connected on three early 3-pointers in the second half to spark the surge, added 12 points and Tre Dinkins III finished with 10 for Duquesne.

Crawford said Edwards’ recent contributions have been a big boost to the team’s success.

“It’s awesome to see that. He’s a great person who brings great energy,” Crawford, a Marshall transfer, said of Edwards, a George Washington transfer. “We know what he can do, all of us in the locker room. I just told him it’s a matter of time before it clicks. I’m just happy he’s been able to have these past two games, and keep it rolling.”

Joyce, too, insisted it was “just a matter of time” before Edwards got on track in his new surroundings.

“Shooting that 17-19% (from 3) was just not his reality,” Joyce said. “It’s a credit to his hard work. He’s in the gym, and when you put in the work, it’s good to finally see some of the results.”

Noel Brown led St. Bonaventure (15-4, 3-3) with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Melvin Council Jr. added 17 points and nine rebounds, and LaJae Jones finished with 11 points for the Bonnies, who have lost three of their past four games after starting the season 14-1.

St. Bonaventure lost leading scorer Chance Moore (14.9 ppg) in the first half to an apparent leg injury and was playing its ninth game without injured guard Dasonte Bowen, an Iowa transfer, who is averaging 11.1 points and was leading the team in assists when he went down with a foot injury in mid-December.

Meanwhile, Duquesne’s Jake DiMichele, a starter on last season’s NCAA Tournament team, experienced a setback with his plantar fasciitis injury in practice this week, Joyce said. The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard sat on the Duquesne bench with a boot on his foot.

“Just a setback, and it’s a tough one because he practiced right up before the George Washington game, and his foot didn’t feel great,” said Joyce, who said DiMichele’s status remained day-to-day.

“Please believe that Jake is trying and doing everything necessary to help his team and be a part of it,” Joyce said.

Though the rebounding battle finished deadlocked at 33 for each team, Duquesne’s inside presence produced eight blocks — three by Jakub Necas — and the Dukes’ offense purred with 21 assists of 28 field goals and finished at 46.7% shooting overall (28 for 60).

Duquesne rode 8-of-19 shooting from 3-point range in the first half to take a 38-29 lead at the break.

“Defensively, St. Bonaventure’s tendency is they defend the paint,” Joyce said. “We still got to the paint, but we didn’t get (many) shots up there. Their defense is designed not to give too many looks there.

“We made the right passes, the right plays. We got a lot of catch-and-shoot opportunities. Those are the opportunities and shots that we want to create. We did it with post play, we did it through penetration. Yeah, we didn’t have a huge output in the paint, but I’ll take our 14 makes.”

Edwards made 4 of 6 from behind the arc during the first 20 minutes to continue his hot shooting. After beginning the year in the Dukes’ starting lineup, he struggled and was benched but has begun to heat up of late.

“Definitely, the main thing for me has been to keep my confidence up,” he said.

Duquesne’s largest first-half lead was 38-24 (14 points) before St. Bonaventure, behind Council’s 15 points, rallied to cut the deficit to nine at the half.

The Bonnies closed within 38-33 on back-to-back baskets to start the second half, but Duquesne answered with seven consecutive points, including a pair of 3-pointers by Crawford to take a 45-33 lead.

The loss denied St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt his 400th career win. Schmidt, in his 18th season with the Bonnies with a record of 317-230, previously spent six years as coach at Robert Morris, where his teams were a combined 82-90.