PITTSBURGH - Duquesne (20-10, 10-7) got 18 points and five steals from Jimmy Clark III and 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals from David Dixon to reach 20 wins for just the third time in 42 years with a 88-79 victory over Massachusetts (14-15, 5-12) on Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The DU win, combined with Fordham's 64-58 overtime loss at George Mason, kept the Dukes' hope of securing an Atlantic 10 Championship double bye alive heading into DU's regular season finale at Fordham (23-7, 11-6) on Saturday.

With the win, the Dukes - who were picked to finish last in the A-10 preseason poll - tied the school record for home victories (16-4), notched double-digit Atlantic 10 wins for just the sixth time in program history and clinched a winning conference record for the eighth time in 46 A-10 seasons.

Dae Dae Grant scored 15 points, Tevin Brewer had 11 and Quincy McGriff added 10 of the bench for the Dukes, who saw a 16-point halftime lead cut to two with 10:55 left.

Duquesne trailed once, at 2-0.

UMass made it 56-54 on a T.J. Weeks 3-pointer before Brewer hit a 3-pointer and Tre Williams threw down a dunk off a Brewer pass to force a Minutemen timeout with the score 63-56.

The Dukes got back-to-back 3-pointers from Grant and Clark III to make it 73-62 and never saw the lead dip below seven the rest of the way.

Duquesne shot 52 percent in jumping out to a 46-30 halftime lead. Clark III had 11 points, including three of the Dukes' seven 3-pointers, in the opening 20 minutes.

Dixon also provided a spark with eight points, five rebounds and three steals in the opening 20 minutes.

Massachusetts cut it to nine before Dixon hit DU's first field goal of the second half.

The Minutemen, who made five of their first six shots, made it to 51-45 on an Isaac Kante three-point play.

Duquesne turned 21 UMass turnovers in 14 points and outscored the Minutemen 23-9 in fast break points.

DU finished with 12 steals.

Duquesne concludes the regular-season at Fordham on Saturday, Mar. 4 at 2:00 p.m. (ESPN+).

NOTES

• This is Duquesne's third 20-win season in the past 42 years (21-13 under Ron Everhart in 2009 and 21-9 under Keith Dambrot in 2020 are the others).
• Dambrot is the fourth coach in school history - and first since Red Manning - to post multiple 20-win seasons, joining Dudey Moore (five in 10 years from 1949-58; Manning four in 16 years from 1959-74 and Chick Davies two in 21 seasons from 1925-43; '47-48). Dambrot has done it in just six years, including a COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign. This is the 17th 20-win season in 25 years for Dambrot who won 20 or more in his last 12 seasons at Akron.
• This is the sixth time DU has posted 10 or more wins in Atlantic 10 play. Keith Dambrot (10-8 in 2019 & 11-7 in 2020) now owns half of them. The school record for A-10 wins is 11 set by Dambrot's Dukes in 2020. The Dukes have one A-10 game remaining.
• This is the eighth time Duquesne will finish with a winning conference record in 46 Atlantic 10 seasons. Head coach Keith Dambrot has accomplished the feat three times (10-8 in 2019 & 11-7 in 2020 are the others).
• The Dukes (16-4 at home) tied the school record for home wins set in 1950 (16-0) and matched in 1972 (16-1).
• David Dixon, who made his first start since Dec. 8 vs. Marshall finished one point shy of his career high with 13. His eight rebounds and four steals were both career bests
• Jimmy Clark III finished with 18 points, eight assists and five steals.
• This was Quincy McGriff's fifth double-digit scoring game (10 points in 13 minutes off the bench).
•  DU trailed once, at 2-0. Duquesne's largest lead was 17, the last of which came at 44-27, with 0:21 left in the first half.