SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – Ron Everhart knows his team’s record is deceiving. He knows his team isn’t far away.
Duquesne lost for the sixth time in seven games on Wednesday night, dropping a 75-67 decision to Rhode Island. The Dukes are now 0-4 in Atlantic 10 play, but they haven’t been out of a game yet. A 12-point loss to Richmond in the opener stands out as the only double-digit loss, and the eight-point loss at Rhode Island was closer than the margin suggests since the Dukes had the lead with less than two minutes to go. They have also lost a pair of overtime games, and the last two non-conference losses were by nine points each.
So it’s not as if the Dukes are getting blown out. The hope is undoubtedly that these losses prove to be a good learning experience, as this is a young team. The Dukes have one senior in former walk-on Jason Duty and four juniors, only two of which play significant minutes. By class year, this is one of the youngest teams in the country. That can certainly help explain the team’s inability to close out games right now, although some of the younger players have already played a good number of minutes in their careers.
Health is also a concern, as the Dukes have had their entire team available just once all year. Only three players have been in every game, with junior Bill Clark becoming the latest to miss a game as he sat out Wednesday night’s game. According to a report, Clark was sitting out due to an unspecified secondary violation of NCAA rules. Everhart had no additional information on how long Clark may be out or how soon they may have a resolution with the NCAA, but he is no small loss as the team’s second-leading scorer.
“For all intents and purposes, we’ve really only had our full contingent of players for one game,” Everhart said.
Melquan Bolding missed 13 games due to wrist surgery, and it’s clear he’s still not back to form yet. He looked out of sync and didn’t seem to be in the game on Wednesday. Bolding has the potential to be a star for this team, but the injury has set him back aside from the obvious point of missing games. Everhart started him on Wednesday, just his second start of the season and first since returning from the injury, and he struggled.
Despite the close losses, Everhart sees improvement in the team.
“We’re starting to make better decisions, we’re starting to be more efficient out there,” Everhart said. “We just have to hang in there and keep our heads up and keep working, and we have to make plays down the stretch.”
That’s certainly what hurt them on Wednesday, as Rhode Island scored the last nine points of the game and outscored them 14-5 in the last five minutes of the game.
If this young team learns from the recent losses, they can turn a corner before long. Most of the young players have played a lot of minutes in their careers already, so they’re accumulating experience. And as an inexperienced team, they’re not far away right now.
