3 keys for Duquesne Basketball to beat St. Joe's for 1st A-10 victory of the season

Duquesne Basketball looks to get its first A-10 win of the season against St. Joe's. Here are three keys to victory for the game.

Duquesne Basketball looks to get its first A-10 win of the season against St. Joe's. Here are three keys to victory for the game.

After losing to Richmond on Tuesday, Duquesne Basketball is now 9-7 on the season and 0-4 in A-10 play, now in last place in the standings. The Dukes are as desperate as ever, taking on another early conference disappointment, St. Joe's. Like Duquesne, they were picked to finish in the top four of the conference standings but are 1-3 to this point. 

The Hawks are coming off a win over La Salle and are home in Philly for this matchup. The Dukes still have hope to turn this season around but it's going to be a tall task for them to get the road win. Here are three keys to them getting the win.

1. Good game from Dae Dae Grant or Jake DiMichele

Duquesne was without its leading scorer Grant on Tuesday, dealing with concussion protocol after reportedly suffering a head injury before the Dayton game. He averages 18.3 ppg and is one of the best scorers in the A-10 and against a backcourt like St. Joe's, he's going to be needed to have a big game.

If Grant can't go, look for DiMichele to get the start again. He had a nice spark off the bench against Dayton with 12 points but against Richmond, has just three points on 1/5 shooting in 27 minutes. That's just not going to be enough against St. Joe's and its scoring ability.

2. More frontcourt production

Whether Grant is available or not, Duquense needs a collective effort including its bigs having big games. After a couple of games getting next-to-nothing from them, the Dukes got 14 points combined from Tre Williams and Foussenyi Drame, as well as 12 points and six rebounds from David Dixon off the bench.

Dusan Mahorcic played a season-high 17 minutes as a starter but only had five points on 2/9 shooting. Duquesne Basketball will need more from him or Dixon will just need to take more of the minutes at the five-spot. St. Joe's has its own frontcourt to deal with, including 7'0 freshman Christ Essandoko and double-digit scoring sophomore forward, Rasheer Fleming.

3. Limit all-around impact of Lynn Greer

St. Joe's has five double-digit scorers on the roster, led by Erik Reynolds with 17.9 ppg. But he had two 24+ point games in league play already and both of them were losses. So Duquesne can withstand a big outing from him and still win.

The guy I'm keeping a watch on is Greer, the all-around player of the team. The junior guard averages 11.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, and 4.2 apg. He's had a trio of 15+ point games in league play, while also having six points and eight rebounds in the win over La Salle. Duquesne needs to make sure he doesn't fill up the stat sheet, mainly via assists and rebounds in this game to have a good shot. Look for Kareem Rozier to get the matchup with him, with his defense being key to the game.