PITTSBURGH - Duquesne, down 15 with under nine minutes left, put together its best comeback in 21 years in rallying to defeat Longwood, 80-71 at the Palumbo Center.

Eric Williams Jr., who ignited a 16-0 second half run with one of his three 3-pointers, led the Dukes (6-2) with 22 points and 12 rebounds in posting his 14th career double-double.

Lamar Norman Jr. added a career-high 15 points in his first career start for the Dukes, who held Longwood (7-4) to seven second-half field goals.

Duquesne, which trailed by 18 in the closing seconds of the first half, rallied to post its top comeback since the 1997-98 Dukes came back from 19 down to defeat Radford on Dec. 6, 1997.

Longwood missed five of its first six shots out of the half, as DU cut a 47-32 deficit to 10 on a Marcus Weathers layup.

Sincere Carry made it 53-47 when he converted a three-point play at the 13:05 mark.

The Dukes missed their next six shots as the Lancers hit a trio of 3-pointers, the last two from Kamil Chapman, to take a 62-47 lead with 9:16 left.

It was then that Duquesne turned it around, beginning with a Williams Jr. 3-pointer. Norman Jr. followed with a bucket to make it a 10 point game.

An Amari Kelly dunk following a Tavian Dunn-Martin steal made it 62-59.

Dunn-Martin, who scored all of his 11 points in the second half, capped the 16-0 run by giving the Dukes their first lead at 63-62 on a pair of free throws with just over five minutes left.

Longwood tied it twice before Sincere Carry gave Duquesne the lead for good on a layup at the 3:24 mark.

Dunn-Martin added a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to give the Dukes a 74-65 lead with 1:42 remaining.

DU maintained at least a six point advantage the rest of the way.

Duquesne, which finished 10-of-35 from 3-point, missed eight of its first 10 from the arc in falling behind 16-10.

Longwood, which went 8-of-13 from the arc in the first half and 12-of-24 for the game, upped its lead to 25-17 on a JaShaun Smith 3-pointer with 8:28 left. Sean Flood completed a 10-0 Longwood run with a 3-pointer that made it 30-17.

DU answered with 3-pointers from Norman Jr., his third of the half, and Frankie Hughes to briefly cut it to seven. From that point on, Longwood outscored Duquesne 17-9 - including three 3-pointers - to make it 47-32 at the half.

Longwood's largest lead was 47-29 with seven seconds left in the half.

The Lancers outshot the Dukes 61.3 percent to 39.3 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

Duquesne outscored Longwood 48-24 and held the Lancers to 30.4 percent shooting in the second half and turned 14 Longwood second-half turnovers into 15 points.

Duquesne returns to action Thursday night, when it hosts Maryland Eastern Shore at 7:00 p.m. at the Palumbo Center (ESPN+).

NOTES

• The 18-point comeback was the best by a Duquesne team since the 1997-98 Dukes rallied from a 19-point deficit (28-47) with 18:31 left in the second half to defeat Radford, 88-82, on Dec. 6, 1997 ... it was the first time DU won after trailing by 15 in the second half since a 60-56 win over West Virginia on Dec. 11, 2012 at PPG Paints Arena (the Dukes were down 15, 23-38, with 19:14 to go).
• Longwood entered the game ranked 14th nationally in opponent field goal percentage (.374) and 16th in scoring defense (60.1 ppg.) ... Duquesne was just the third team to score 70 or more against the Lancers this season.
• Eric Williams Jr. came off the bench to post his 14th career double-double (third this season) with 22 points and 12 rebounds in 28 minutes.  
• Freshman Lamar Norman Jr., who made his first career start, hit three 3-pointers in scoring a career high 15 points ... this was DU's fourth different starting lineup in its past four games.
• Six-eight center Michael Hughes, who entered Sunday's games ranked sixth nationally in field goal percentage (.709) was not in uniform due to a knee contusion ... Hughes leads the team in scoring at 13.7 ppg. and in double-digit scoring games with six ... in his past three games, Hughes is 24-of-30 from the field and averaging 16.7 points.
• There were three ties and one lead change before Duquesne took the lead for good on a Sincere Carry layup with 3:24 left ... Longwood's largest lead was 18 at 47-29 with seven seconds left in the first half ... Duquesne's largest lead was nine points, the last of which was the final score ... Duquesne led for 4:23, Longwood led for 34:36 ... the game was tied for 1:01.