Rhode Island cruises earlier Duquesne as Dukes fall 14th straight recreation

When issues are going badly for a struggling basketball crew, practically nothing should be a surprise.

So, when Rhode Island’s Jeremy Sheppard took a direct go from Malik Martin and dribbled to half courtroom Saturday with the first-half clock winding down, Sheppard did what any person else may well do: He heaved the ball just before time ran out.

Just Duquesne’s luck. Miraculously, it banked in for a 3-position shot at the buzzer and gave Rhode Island a relaxed 19-point direct en route to a 70-54 victory above the harm-depleted Dukes at Ryan Middle in Kingston, R.I.

“It’s hard to hold stressing the idea of staying optimistic and making the most of the video game when that form of issue occurs,” Duquesne mentor Keith Dambrot explained. “But which is portion of the match.”

The injury-depleted Dukes saw their dropping streak arrive at 14, three shy of a college file.

Ishmael El-Amin scored 21 factors, Ishmael Leggett included 13 and Sheppard concluded with 11 to guide Rhode Island (14-13, 5-10 Atlantic 10), which finished a three-match slide and received for just the next time in 11 online games.

El-Amin, a Ball Point out transfer and the son of former Connecticut star Khalid El-Amin, who led the Huskies to the 1999 countrywide championship, shot 7 for 12 and tied Martin with a group-significant seven rebounds for Rhode Island.

Kevin Easley Jr. paced Duquesne (6-21, 1-14) with 13 points, freshman Jackie Johnson III additional 10 on just 3-of-10 shooting and Toby Okani grabbed 11 rebounds.

Duquesne, which has two standard-year game titles remaining — starting Wednesday at George Washington — in advance of the start out of the A-10 Event, shot 18 for 55 (36.7%).

After Sheppard’s last-2nd shot capped a 13- operate to shut the initially fifty percent for Rhode Island, El-Amin’s basket to start the second 50 percent greater the Rams’ by now-commanding guide just before Duquesne rallied to minimize the 21-point deficit to nine, 47-38, on a 3-position shot by Easley Jr. with 13 minutes, 11 seconds still left.

Rhode Island utilized a 7- run to thrust the lead to 54-38 and the Rams went on to the victory, although Duquesne made a single final run late with Johnson III’s 3-pointer closing the Dukes in 63-54 with 1:38 to go in advance of Rhode Island scored the game’s closing 7 details.

Duquesne went extra than 5 minutes devoid of a discipline goal in the 1st 50 % as Rhode Island designed an early 19-9 guide. But Duquesne hung all over in advance of heading cold yet again.

Rhode Island was clinging to a 29-23 lead but pulled absent to its 42-23 gain at the 50 percent immediately after ending the very first fifty percent with a flurry.

Even so, Dambrot, in a acquainted refrain, acknowledged the effort and hard work his players have been offering for considerably of the time. In particular so, he said, for the duration of the team’s current slide, which has seen Duquesne score far more than 59 points just a few periods given that a very last-second, 72-71 decline at Fordham on Jan. 12, a span of 13 online games.

“I thought they experimented with difficult these days, looking at the situation,” Dambrot said. “It’s really hard to keep men engaged. None of these men have at any time been via this ahead of.”

A disastrous year took yet one more flip in new times with the loss of 6-foot-7 centre Tre Williams to a knee injuries in the Dukes’ 74-50 household setback to Davidson on Wednesday.

Williams, who experienced started off just about every recreation for Duquesne and was the team’s top scorer and second-major rebounder and also was rated fifth in the A-10 in blocks, was scheduled to undertake time-ending, arthroscopic knee surgical procedure in the following several days.

Dambrot’s most current starting off lineup mix of Okani, Mounir Hima, Mike Bekelja, Tyson Acuff and Primo Spears was Duquesne’s 12th of the time and sixth in the earlier 6 video games.

The Dukes also have performed a lot of the time without the need of 6-10 Austin Rotroff, who is sidelined with a tension fracture, and 6-7 RJ Gunn Jr., who has played in just just one sport since of a extreme superior-ankle sprain.

“A ton of our scoring problems have been inside of,” Dambrot explained. “Do you consider the mismatch inside of these days is any distinct?”

Rhode Island outscored the Dukes, 40-16, in the paint. The Rams’ lineup included the Mitchell brothers, 6-10, 245-pound Makhel and 6-9, 230 Makhi.

Other than the inexperienced 6-11 Hima, who bought his next career commence towards Rhode Island, Duquesne’s tallest player was the 6-8 Okani, who has started 13 of 27 games this year.

“These games now in January and February do not suggest as well a great deal for us,” Dambrot reported. “It’s the recruiting battles in March and April that we’ve bought to be in a position to get.”

Dave Mackall is a Tribune-Critique contributing writer.