BYU gets shut down by Duquesne, 71-67
OMAHA, Neb. (ABC4 Sports) – The BYU basketball team surprised a lot of people with 23 wins in its first year in the tough Big 12 Conference this season. But in the NCAA Tournament, it was the same old Cougars.
6th-seeded BYU shot 39 percent from the field, and made just 8 of 24 three-pointers in a 71-67 loss to 11th-seeded Duquesne Thursday in Omaha. BYU is now 0-5 in its last five first round games.
“Devastated,” BYU guard Richie Saunders said in a quiet locker room. “I’m, like, devastated. Every day for the last nine months, we’ve been together and we’ve just worked. It hurts. It just hurts.
“It’s it’s a terrible time because you just sit in the locker room universally devastated,” said BYU head coach Mark Pope. “There’s nothing to do to fix it, and there’s not another game to go make it better.”
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Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points, including four clinching free throws in the final 10 seconds, and the Dukes held on after blowing a 14-point lead in the second half.
Jaxson Robinson led BYU with 25 points, while Spencer Johnson had 11 points and 16 rebounds. But the rest of the Cougars couldn’t do much against a physical and aggressive Duquesne defense.
“It was just their physicality offensively and defensively,” said BYU forward Noah Waterman. “I mean, they’re throwing elbows and stuff like that. We’ve got to just come back and do the same thing to them, and we did that in the second half, and that’s why we made a comeback. But we should have done that sooner.”
Robinson, who was 8-for-15 from the field, did not attempt a shot in the final five minutes of the game.
Jakub Necas added 12 points and Jimmy Clark III had 11 for the Atlantic 10 tourney champs, who won four games in four days there just to qualify for their first dance in 47 years, and now have their first win on the NCAA stage since 1969. The Dukes (25-11) will play third-seeded Illinois or No. 14 seed Morehead State for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.
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The Cougars (23-11) trailed 46-32 in the second half before drawing even when Fousseyni Traore, who had struggled all game, slammed down the second of back-to-back baskets to knot the affair at 60-all with 1:45 to go.
Clark was fouled at the other end and made two free throws for Duquesne, and when Traore missed a floater, he got to the line again. Clark only made the first of two foul shots this time but helped tie up a loose ball after the second, and on the next play, the slick guard broke down the defense for a layup and a 65-60 lead with 26.9 seconds left.
Dallin Hall tried to give the Cougars a chance with four free throws and a deep 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds, but Grant — one of the nation’s best foul shooters — was stoic from the line to help send the Dukes into the weekend.
“They were grabbing, holding, and we weren’t able to fight through that,” said BYU point guard Dallin Hall, who had 11 points, six assists and four steals. “It took us too long to get to a point where we were the aggressors. We didn’t put our best foot forward, which is super frustrating.”
Four of BYU’s five consecutive first round losses in the Big Dance have come to double-digit seeds. Fousseyni Traore added 11 points, while Aly Khalifa didn’t score.
“I feel like we got pretty good looks offensively,” said Robinson. “Some of the shots didn’t fall and didn’t bounce our way. But I’m super proud of this team.”
BYU’s three-point prowess could be key against Duquesne
“It’s hard to lose like that,” said Johnson, who like Robinson, played his final game as a Cougar. “It just doesn’t feel very good. But I can say I’m super grateful.”
Hall took a shot to the face that left him with tissues shoved up his bleeding nostrils in the first half. Richie Saunders got an elbow to the midsection that left him doubled over on the floor. Johnson even lost a shoe while playing defense, and the Dukes took advantage of the opening for a dunk that helped them build a big early lead.
“We made them work for everything they got,” Duquesne head coach Keith Dambrot said.
Robinson, voted the top backup in the Big 12 this season, tried to keep the Cougars afloat with 12 first-half points, but Necas — a Czech freshman averaging 2.3 a game — countered with eight of his own to help Duquesne take a 38-30 lead at the break.
The pressure of the NCAA Tournament seemed to boil over in the opening minutes of the second half.
The Dukes’ Fousseyni Drame got tied up with the Cougars’ Noah Waterman on a rebound and both went to the floor, where they started to wrestle as official Pat Driscoll leaped between them. Driscoll was shaken up and both players got technical fouls, and that wound up foreshadowing a game that would be a fight all the way to the finish.
“I’m super proud of my guys,” Pope said. “This is incredibly painful. But that will dissipate to some degree, and it’ll be replaced with just an insane amount of gratitude.”
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