St. Bonaventure continues mastery of Duquesne

In the 14-team Atlantic 10, Duquesne and St. Bonaventure have shown they can play some pretty tight defense, the Dukes ranking third in scoring defense at 63.7 points per game; St. Bonaventure fourth at 64.1.

So, what was up with that high-scoring affair between the two on Saturday at UPMC Events Center?

“It’s not how I coach, and it’s not what I believe in,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said.

In spite of it, the Dukes were in a position late to take home their third consecutive victory.

But it was St. Bonaventure prevailing as Kyle Lofton scored 21 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer, to lead four players in double figures for the Bonnies in an 83-80 victory over Duquesne in the 11th annual Chuck Cooper Classic.

“I haven’t won many 83-80 games. I don’t really like those kind of games,” Dambrot said. “But I don’t know how many games I’ve ever lost when we made 14 3s, either.”

St. Bonaventure shot 49.2% (30 for 61) and was 10 for 21 (47.6%) from 3-point range for its fourth straight win. Duquesne made 24 for 55 overall (43.6%) and made 14 of 34 3-pointers (41.2%), fueled by Tavian Dunn-Martin’s career-high tying 7 for 15.

“The 3 was open for us,” Dunn-Martin said, “so we took it.”

After Sincere Carry’s jumper with 1 minute, 36 seconds left tied the score at 77-77, St. Bonaventure on its next possession used an out-of-bounds play to lob the ball to Dominick Welch, who fed an unguarded Lofton behind the arc, where he made one of those swishers with 1:14 to go.

“It’s what I call ‘The old Chicago Bulls play,’ ” Dambrot said. “Everybody stared at it, and they flared us out the back. I’ve seen NBA teams get caught on it. We got caught on it.”

Down by nine points, Duquesne (17-6, 7-4) fought back to tie it on Carry’s fadeaway jumper. Following Lofton’s go-ahead 3, Welch hit a jumper from the left win with 21 seconds left to give St. Bonaventure a five-point margin.

Jaren English (15 points), Welch (13) and Osun Osunniyi (12) also scored in double figures for St. Bonaventure (16-8, 8-3), which extended its winning streak over Duquesne to eight dating to 2015-16.

The Bonnies have defeated the Dukes 11 times in their past 12 meetings.

“I give our guys credit. They fought when things didn’t go well,” Dambrot said. “St. Bonaventure is one of the best teams in this league. Remember that I told you that. They’ve got a lot of pop and a lot of good pieces.”

Duquesne has played St. Bonaventure more than any other opponent: 123 times in the series dating to 1920.

Dunn-Martin came off the bench to lead Duquesne with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Carry added 17 points and Baylee Steele chipped in 15 for the Dukes, who are idle for seven days until making a trip to Fordham on Feb. 16.

St. Bonaventure used a 38-21 edge in rebounding to its advantage after Duquesne had outrebounded a physical Saint Louis team, 40-30, in an 82-68 road victory on Wednesday.

St. Bonaventure capped a wild first half that saw a little bit of everything by holding off a barrage of 3-point shots by Dunn-Martin for a 43-38 lead.

Dunn-Martin, the reigning A-10 Sixth Man of the Year, connected on 4 of 7 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes to keep Duquesne in the game.

The Bonnies went up 49-40 early in the second half and made Duquesne work to stay in close.

“We just had a bad start to the second half, but our team showed a lot of grit and fight and we stayed together,” said Carry, who produced eight assists. “We took their punch and we bounced back, so that’s the positive you take from a game like this.”

Both teams’ shot-blocking big men sat for portions battling fouls, Duquesne’s Michael Hughes and St. Bonaventure’s Osunniyi. Both came in averaging 2.8 blocks per game. Hughes finished the game with six of Duquesne’s eight rejections.

Osunniyi and Welch led St. Bonaventure with nine rebounds apiece.

Duquesne’s Marcus Weathers, the Dukes’ leading scorer (15.0 ppg) and rebounder (7.9 rpg), was held without a field goal, scoring all his points on 7-of-8 shooting from the foul line.

“I felt like he didn’t really have it from the get-go,” Dambrot said. “I tried being nice early, and then I tried crushing him and he just couldn’t get going. … He looked like he was sore and stiff. I’m not mad at Marcus. He’s carried us all year long, but we’re going to struggle if he doesn’t play better than that.”

Dambrot said Weathers also suffered from a bump on his ankle.

“We’ve been pushing his conditioning, so we probably didn’t help him any,” Dambrot said,. “But, we know he’s got to get better-conditioned to really become what he should be.”