Noah Fries & Ben Deihl | staff writer & sports editor

The Duquesne men’s basketball team was dominated by Boise State 86-64 on Wednesday night at ExtraMile Arena in Boise, Idaho as a part of the Duquesne’s final road trip before conference play begins.  

 “It’s a tough place to win,” Duquesne Head Coach Dru Joyce III said. “They don’t lose very often [at home]. We did some good things, but defensively, you don’t want to give up 45 points in the first half.”

The Broncos took control of the game on the first possession with a deep two by senior forward Javan Buchanan that was answered instantly by a floater from Duquesne graduate forward John Hugley IV. 

 After Boise State junior forward/center Drew Fielder put in a putback layup to make the score 4-2, the Broncos would not relinquish their lead for the rest of the game.  

 Boise State’s big men were dominating the game early, forcing an early Duquesne timeout by going up 13-6. Both teams were very sloppy from beyond the arc through the first eight minutes of the game — Duquesne was 1 of 6 while Boise State was 1 of 5 from 3-point land.  

Duquesne went on three long stretches in the first half without scoring a bucket. A Boise State 10-0 run, where it had hit 6 of its last 8 from the field, forced another timeout with the Dukes going down by 15.  

To put it simply, the Broncos were unconscious from beyond the arc after the second media timeout. After starting 1-for-5, Boise State would hit 7 of its next 8 threes to keep extending its lead over the Dukes – a lead that would reach 15 as the first-half buzzer sounded with the Broncos taking a 45-30 advantage into the break.  

“We have to adhere to the scout,” Joyce said. “They were shooting near 60% from 3. If you let a guy who’s a threat continue to shoot 3’s, you’re going to pay for it.”

Leading the charge for the Broncos was sophomore forward Pearson Carmichael, who shot 87.5% (7/8) from the field in the first half – including hitting 5 of his 6 threes – to tally 19 points in the first half. Carmichael came into the game with a prior career high of 14, set against the University of Southern California just 16 days earlier.  

Duquesne junior guard Jimmie Williams paced the team with 9 points in the first half, with Hugley tallying eight. The Dukes shot just 40.0% from the field in the half, including 15.4% (2/13) from beyond the arc.  

Coming out of half, the Dukes scored the first 4 points of the second half to cut the lead to 11, looking primed to try to make a comeback.  

 “Second half, we had some stints where we got better,” Joyce said. “But we just couldn’t quite put together a rhythm to crawl back into the game.”

Unfortunately for Duquesne, Boise State went back to hitting shots at an unreal rate to put any hopes of a comeback to rest. The Dukes were unable to get any closer than 11 for the rest of the game — even when the Broncos went on seemingly their first cold spell of the game midway through the second half.  

Still, Boise State continued their domination to the final buzzer. The Broncos hit 46.7% of their shots from the field, while also converting 90% of their free throws from 18 Duquesne personal fouls, only missing two from the line. 

Jakub Necas was the lead man for the Dukes, putting up 13 points and nine rebounds, just shy of a double-double. He tied with teammate David Dixon for a game-high two blocks, using his length and closing speed to stuff shots and record the game-high in rebounds. 

“[Necas] continues to find ways to play,” Joyce said. “He’s going to give you his all-out best every single time, and that’s what we want from our guys.”

Four different Dukes scored double figures against Boise State, including Jake DiMichele, who’s working back from a season-ending injury a year ago. Still operating under limited time, DiMichele scored 11 points in 14 minutes, but picked up four personal fouls to end his night. 

Duquesne was ice cold from all parts of the court, only converting 41.4% of their shots and going 61.1% from the free-throw line. The Dukes struggled with Boise State’s man defense, choosing to shoot line 3’s or forcing the ball inside to Hugley or Necas to hopefully dominate the paint. 

The Dukes were down by two possessions or more for almost the entire match, with their smallest deficit occurring just 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the game. Duquesne was dominated at the point of attack, playing catch-up the entire game. 

Duquesne will look to rebound after the loss against Nevada on Saturday, finishing their trip out west before heading back home to face Canisius on Dec. 22. 

Noah Fries can be reached a friesn@duq.edu

Ben Deihl can be reached at deihlb1@duq.edu