Moon. The redshirt junior finished the day with a team-high 25 points. Dunn-Martin tied his career-high
for three-point field goals made against St. Bonaventure, hitting seven shots from behind the arc.
David Borne | Sports Editor
Feb. 13, 2020
With just over a minute remaining in Sunday’s matinee matchup, Duquesne and St. Bonaventure were knotted at 77-77.
Bonnies’ Head Coach Mark Schmidt called a play for his team’s leading scorer, Kyle Lofton. Lofton found himself wide open on an out-of-bounds play that began with a lob to SBU’s Dominick Welch. Welch kicked the ball out to Lofton, and the sniper buried the shot.
Duquesne couldn’t overcome the deficit the bucket created, and dropped an 83-80 result at the UPMC Events Center in Moon.
“They threw the ball up in the air. They lobbed in it on Tavian [Dunn-Martin’s] man, so what’s human nature? Everybody stares at it,” Dambrot said. “[Lofton] flared us out the back when everybody stared at it. I’ve seen NBA teams get caught on it. We got caught on it.”
Lofton’s dagger was the last of many threes St. Bonaventure netted on Sunday.
The Bonnies finished the afternoon shooting 10-21 from deep. Lofton led the three-point barrage, netting five of his six attempts from deep. Sophomore guard Jaren English added two threes as well.
Overall, St. Bonaventure shot 30-61 from the floor. The Bonnies posted their second-highest point total of the season in the win.
Duquesne guard Tavian Dunn-Martin admitted the Dukes consistently gave the opposition too much room on their looks — and that gave St. Bonaventure the edge.
“They were just making [shots],” Dunn-Martin said. “They took advantage of wide open shots. That’s basically all I can say. And we got out-rebounded. If we box them out, rebound, and try to not give them as much open shots, it’d probably be a different game.”
The game was a back-and-forth battle, with both teams lighting up the attacking end of the court. Dunn-Martin carried the offensive load on his shoulders in the first half for Duquesne. The Dukes trailed 43-38 at the end of the first period of play, with Dunn-Martin accounting for 16 of those points. He finished the day as the game’s leading scorer with 25.
Sincere Carry, who was held scoreless in the first half, put on a scoring display in the second. The sophomore added 17 points of his own, which kept Duquesne within arm’s reach of the Bonnies’ lead.
Even though Duquesne got everything it needed on the offensive side of the court, the Dukes couldn’t trip up the Bonnies on the other end. St. Bonaventure’s attack proved to be too much for Duquesne to handle, and the comeback effort was denied.
“I haven’t won many 83-80 games,” Dambrot said. “I don’t really like those kind of games. But I don’t know how many
games I’ve ever lost when we made 14 threes, either.”
The loss dropped Duquesne’s Atlantic 10 record to 7-4. St. Bonaventure’s win — and another victory on Tuesday night against Saint Joseph’s — pushed the Bonnies ahead
of the Dukes in the standings.
The Dukes will have had nearly a week off before they hit the floor again this weekend.
Duquesne will head out on the road and take on Fordham at 2 p.m. this Sunday at the Rose Hill Gym.
Fordham finds itself in the bottom quadrant of the conference standings again this season. However, the Rams did take Duquesne to overtime earlier this year, but
the Dukes pulled out a 58-56 win.
