Duquesne Basketball Star Guard Grant Out For Second Straight Game

Duquesne basketball will play against rival Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia at 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon and will not have one of their best players playing for them.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported that star senior guard Dae Dae Grant will not play for the Dukes, as he is still dealing with a concussion. He missed his first game of the season on Tuesday at home against the Richmond Spiders, which ended a streak of 48 straight games that he played and started for the Dukes.

The Dukes led for most of the game against the Spiders, but questionable officiating and poor execution down the stretch saw them lose their advantage and fall 63-61, starting 0-4 in Atlantic-10 play for the first time since the 2012-13 season.

Duquesne basketball head coach Keith Dambrot expanded on Grant and his concussion in the press conference following the loss to Richmond.

“He’s not doing great,” Dambrot said. “He’s had some struggles. He has a concussion. He’s in concussion protocol. He’s got headache issues. We’re trying to make sure he’s healthy before he comes back. Those concussions are dangerous things.”

“It was a freaky accident. We’re not really sure how it all happened. It might have happened before the last game (Dayton) in a walk-through. He wasn’t having any symptoms before that and all of a sudden, he got hit pretty hard.”

Grant is one of the best players in the Atlantic-10, ranking No. 3 scoring 18.3 points and 2.8 3-pointers per game, respectively, as well as ranking No. 2 in the conference shooting 94.1% from the foul line.

Senior guard Jimmy Clark III is someone that will have to step up in Grant’s absence. He scores 15.9 points per game, tied for No. 9 in the Atlantic-10, and forces 2.4 steals per game, best in the conference.

First-year walk-on guard Jake DiMichele got the start in place of Grant against Richmond and played a career-high 27 minutes, scoring three points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out two assists.