After a down year in which the Atlantic 10 was hard-pressed to place more than one team in the NCAA Tournament, some pundits have predicted as many as four NCAA bids for the conference.

Entering Saturday’s games, the A-10 was tied with the West Coast Conference for the second-most teams with at least 15 overall victories with six each. Only the Big Ten, with seven, had more.

Among those 15-win teams is Duquesne (15-5, 5-3), which returns to PPG Paints Arena on Sunday to face La Salle (10-10, 1-7).

“People are going to look at La Salle’s record and say, ‘They’re not any good.’ But they’re wrong,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “They just played at home (on Wednesday) against Saint Louis and lost in overtime (77-76). They’ve played a lot of close games with good teams. We’re going to have to play.”

The game comes at a critical time for Duquesne, which has seen its remarkable start to the season dulled by a three-game losing streak.

Friday, at Duquesne’s Power Center, the team’s temporary practice facility while their home court is being renovated, the Dukes were in business mode after a 73-69 loss tto No. 7 Dayton two days earlier.

“When we started the day,” I said, ‘Oh boy,’ because you know it’s February, we lost three in a row and a lot of juice went into that Dayton game,” Dambrot said.

The Dukes rallied from a 19-point deficit to cut the Dayton lead to two in the final minute before falling short at PPG Paints Arena.

“But then,” said Dambrot, locking eyes with his players, “maybe what we did in practice helped revitalize them because they were pretty good. We’ve just got to make sure we come with some good juice.”

Since winning its first 10 games and sporting a 15-2 record before this current skid, Duquesne has sputtered. But Dambrot said it is not too late to refocus and find the mark again. Facing La Salle seemed like a good time to start the process.

The Explorers are yielding an average of 70.1 points.

“Play with juice and energy and get on a roll,” Dambrot said. “There’s plenty of teams in this league that can do that.”

La Salle, like so many others, has played several close games. The Explorers are 6-4 in games decided by nine points or fewer.

Meanwhile, Duquesne is averaging 62.4 points in its past five games, well below a season average of 70.7. The Dukes, who yield an average of 63.2, are 6-3 in games decided by nine points or fewer. They have lost their most recent contests to Massachusetts, 73-64, and to Dayton.

Senior guard Isiah Deas (11.7 ppg) leads La Salle in scoring. Sophomore Ed Croswell (10.5 ppg, 8.0 rpg), a 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward, is second in scoring and leads the team in rebounding.

Duquesne’s Marcus Weathers (14.4 ppg, 8.2 rpg) has been a consistent. The 6-6 junior forward leads the Dukes in scoring and rebounding and has produced 15 double-digit scoring games.

Sophomore point guard Sincere Carry (11.5 ppg) and junior center Michael Hughes (10.5) also average double figures in scoring for Duquesne. Hughes’ 58 blocks ranks second in the A-10, where the Dukes’ total of 118 tops the field.

The intensity at Duquesne’s Friday morning practice was encouraging to Dambrot amid the current skid. He is hopeful there’s another gear in his team’s repertoire.

“It has to be done as a group,” he said. “Until we go every day, everyone, we’re going to be good, but we’re not going to be great.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)