By now, its no secret Duquesnes basketball schedule was assembled with postseason aspirations in mind.

Not the College Basketball Invitational, where the Dukes made an appearance last season, mind you. Not even the National Invitation Tournament.

Were building this to get to the (Atlantic 10 Tournament) championship and to get to the (NCAA) Tournament, sophomore point guard Kareem Rozier said.

Its a hard schedule, coach Keith Dambrot said, reflecting on Duquesnes 70-67 loss to Princeton on Wednesday night. We felt like we were going to have a relatively good team, so why not?

Its results such as the Dukes first loss of the season that Rozier and his teammates are hoping, come March, will shape the Dukes into a Tournament-type team for the first time in nearly five decades.

I truly believe this is the team that will do it this year, Rozier said. But to do it, youve got to go through some rough patches, and this is one of them.

Duquesne and Princeton waited until the last second to settle their outcome before the Tigers edged the Dukes and sent a boisterous UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse crowd home disappointed.

Matt Allocco scored 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting and Princeton (3-0) withstood Duquesnes last-second rush to remain undefeated.

Duquesne trailed 68-67 with a chance to come away with a win in the closing seconds, but Fousseyni Drames contested layup clanged off the rim and Rozier fouled Princetons Xaiavian Lee with four-tenths of a second remaining.

Lee converted both free throws to seal the victory for Princeton.

Lee added 20 points and Blake Peters contributed 11 for The Tigers, who led Duquesne for nearly the entire game, trailing for just 46 seconds in the first half.

A classic giant slayer the Tigers last season reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed Princeton shot 56.5%.

The Tigers carried an impressive NCAA Evaluation Tool ranking of 93 following victories over Rutgers (NET ranking of 40) and Hofstra (85).

We had our shot tonight and it didnt fall in our favor, Rozier said. It wasnt our time, and thats OK. It hurts right now. Princeton would have been a great win.

Duquesne, with a NET ranking of 137, opened the season with impressive victories over Cleveland State (185) and College of Charleston (52). And theres more to come before the A-10 opener Jan. 3 at Massachusetts.

The Dukes will face Nebraska (92) next week and four other opponents later on with impressive NET rankings: Bradley (78), Marshall (83), Santa Clara (87) and UC Irvine (102).

On Tuesday, UC Irvine and Santa Clara knocked off Power 5 conference teams, the Anteaters upsetting No. 16 Southern California and the Broncos defeating Stanford.

We have enough guys, Dambrot said.

But two big men that Dambrot has been counting on Dusan Mahorcic and Tre Williams are sidelined indefinitely by injuries.

Mahorcic, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound transfer from North Carolina State, has yet to play while working his way back from a serious knee injury. During a pregame interview on SportsNet Pittsburgh and ESPN Plus, Mahorcic said he was expecting to receive two additional Platelet-rich plasma injections and hoped to make his Duquesne debut in a month to six weeks.

The 6-7, 250-pound Williams, who sustained a hand injury on Friday against Charleston, is due back sooner than later, unless he has a complication, Dambrot said.

Until then, Duquesne will survive, he said.

But the Dukes ran into trouble Wednesday, though Dambrot quipped, If we make (the last shot), were all happy.

Jimmy Clark III led Duquesne (3-1) with 17 points. Dae Dae Grant added 16 for the Dukes, who return to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Friday against Rider in a continuation of the Cornhusker Classic. The Dukes defeated Stony Brook on Monday in the first round.

Duquesne trailed at halftime for the third time in its first four games, but it couldve been by a wider margin had former Our Lady of Sacred Heart star Jake DiMichele, inserted late in the first half, not hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer for his first college points to cut the Princeton lead to 37-31.

A Grant 3-pointer pulled Duquesne within 52-49, and he nearly tied the score on the next possession, but his long attempt from the behind the arc bounded off the back of the iron and out of bounds.

Princeton then scored six unanswered points to go up 58-49.

Clark, who went to the bench briefly with his fourth foul at the 11:02 mark, returned and promptly swished a 3-pointer to cut the Princeton lead to 58-54.

A pair of Rozier free throws with 4:34 left kept Duquesne close at 63-60 and the Dukes defense then trapped Princeton into calling a timeout before the Tigers could escape.

Princeton lost possession and Drame scored on a driving layup to pull Duquesne within 63-62, igniting a crowd infused with an unusually rowdy Dukes student section.

Zach Martinis three-point play gave Princeton some breathing room again at 66-62 before Duquesne responded when Clark scored on a driving layup and was fouled. He converted the free throw to again pull Duquesne within a point, 66-65, with 1:45 left.

Alloccos acrobatic shot underneath for Princeton kept the the Tigers in control, but Grant hit a pair of free throws at the other end to make it 68-67.

The hectic early season schedule includes seven games in November for Duquesne, which appeared a step slow, at times, against Princetons methodic approach.

Its a tough team to play at the beginning of the year, Dambrot said. It was a tough game. Our guys battled to the end. Our guys are gutty guys. They played hard. They didnt quite have it, but they hung around and hung around and gave ourselves a good chance to win.

Looking relaxed, despite his teams first loss, Dambrot stood up, forced a weak smile and said, See ya next See ya in 24 hours.

Dave Mackall is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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