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PITTSBURGH - Charles Cooke scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half as Dayton snapped Duquesne's seven-game home win streak with a 66-58 victory in the Atlantic 10 opener for both schools at DU's A.J. Palumbo Center.

Derrick Colter led the shorthanded Dukes with 14.

Darius Lewis scored 12 points for Duquesne, which was without second-leading scorer Micah Mason (16.1 ppg.), who was in street clothes with an ankle sprain.

Colter, who went 2-of-12 from the floor, cut Dayton's lead to four on a layup with 4:33 left, but was unable to convert a pair of shots around a UD turnover. Lewis missed a tip of Colter's second miss with 3:39 left, before Colter turned it over and Cooke hit a pair of free throws that made it 56-50.

The Flyers took their largest lead of the game when Cooke found Steve McElvene for a dunk that made it 60-52 with 1:42 left.

Lewis, who went 5-of-7 from the field, scored again and Colter, who finished 10-of-11 from the line, added a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game with 38 seconds left, but UD hit six free throws in the final 31 seconds to seal the win.

Mason, who injured his ankle late in the first half of DU's 73-67 loss at Georgia Tech on Tuesday, tried to take part in warm-ups, but was unable to play.

"The kid's one of the best players in the league and when you don't have him, it changes things a ton," said Duquesne head coach Jim Ferry.

Neither team shot the ball well in a first half that ended with Dayton up 25-20. Duquesne, which was 4-of-26 from the field, stayed in the game by going 11-of-13 from the foul line. Dayton, which went 1-of-17 from the 3-point arc, was 11-of-33 in the opening 20 minutes.

"It was like a rock fight," said Ferry of the first half. "The ball was kind of flying all over the place early. Then we kind of settled down and did a better job."

Duquesne, which eclipsed its first half field goal total a little more than six minutes into the second half, took its first lead since the opening minutes at 30-29 on a Colter field goal at the 15:37 mark, only to see Cooke come back with a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to put Dayton up two.

Dayton, which went 3-of-25 from 3-point, finished at 36.5 percent. Duquesne shot 32.7 percent.

The Dukes, who went 22-of-28 from the line, outrebounded the Flyers 44-39. Eric James had a career-high 12 boards for DU in his second consecutive start in place of Jeremiah Jones who suffered a career-ending ACL tear versus Robert Morris on Dec. 19.

"Our personnel has changed drastically in the past two games," said Ferry. "Jeremiah gets knocked out against Robert Morris, then Micah gets knocked out. You've got to make adjustments and more importantly, the guys played really, really hard and that's what gave us a chance to win this game."

Duquesne continues Atlantic 10 Conference play at Davidson on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7:00 p.m.

NOTES

• The loss snapped Duquesne's home win streak at seven ... the 7-0 home start was the school's best since 1979-80.

• The Dukes, who were playing their second game without injured senior forward Jeremiah Jones (season-ending torn ACL suffered on Dec. 19 vs. Robert Morris), were also without senior guard Micah Mason (16.1 ppg./team-high 58 assists & 43 3-pointers), who suffered a sprained ankle late in the first half of DU's 73-67 loss at Georgia Tech on Tuesday ... Jones (103) and Mason (99) have a combined 202 games of experience.

• Sophomore Eric James, who had a double-double (11-11) in his first career start in place of Jones on Tuesday at Georgia Tech, topped his career rebound high with 12 ... James also had 7 points and 2 steals in 38 minutes.

• Freshman Josh Steel had 7 points (2-of-4 from 3-point) in his first career start ... Steel, who played 84 minutes in DU's first 12 games, saw 37 minutes of action.

• Derrick Colter scored 14 points to up his career point total to 1,332 ... Colter was 2-of-12 from the field, including 0-of-4 from the 3-point arc ... it is just the third time in his career that Colter has gone back-to-back games without a 3-pointer ( he was 0-of-5 from the arc at Georgia Tech) ... Colter, who has started every game in his DU career (105), has never gone more than two consecutive games without a 3-pointer.

• Duquesne's largest lead was one point at 30-29 with 15:38 left ... Dayton's largest lead was the eight-point final margin.