Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University men's basketball team hit all four of its shots from the field in overtime, including a driving layup from senior guard Tarence Guinyard with 28 seconds left, en route to an 87-81 overtime victory over Queens Tuesday in the Villanova Challenge at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Dukes improved to 3-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign thanks to the win.
 
POINTS OF EMPHASIS
Queens dug out of a 21-point deficit in the first half and grabbed the lead with two minutes to go in regulation on a three-pointer from Nasir Mann, 71-70. The Dukes answered out of a timeout, with junior forward Jakub Nečas burying a triple of his own to push Duquesne back in front, 73-71. Avantae Parker was able to tie it with 48 seconds to go in the second half with a tip-in, and both teams had opportunities in the closing seconds. Guinyard, however, had a driving layup blocked, while Yoav Berman was short on a pull-up jumper before getting open for a three-pointer that was also short after an offensive rebound from Maban Jabriel.

FREE BASKETBALL
The Royals scored first in the extra period thanks to a driving layup from Mann, but forward John Hugley IV was sent to the free-throw line on the next possession for the Dukes. He hit both to tie the game for just the second time, and after Chris Ashby missed a jumper, Nečas pulled down the rebound before going the length of the court to push Duquesne on top for good, 77-75, with a layup. Queens followed with a turnover, and senior guard Cam Crawford took a feed from Guinyard and buried a three-pointer to extend the lead for the Dukes to 80-75 with 3:15 left in overtime. Jabriel would close the Royals to within 80-78 with a pair at the stripe, but redshirt senior guard Maximus Edwards, who scored 16 points off the bench, drove the lane and took a feed from Hugley IV thanks to an offensive rebound and scored with just over two minutes to go to push the advantage to 82-78. Duquesne would seal the win at the free-throw line and held Queens to just 2-of-7 from the field in the extra five minutes.

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"Credit to (Queens)," head coach Dru Joyce III said. "I watched the Villanova game, and they climbed back in, so I knew the resilience of that team. They kept fighting tonight and had another gear that they tried to shift into. I think we helped with that with some of our play. In the end we did enough to figure it out. We got the right stops and had some guys with some big-time shots. That was our first time in a close game this early in the season. It wasn't easy and they had the momentum. We continued to fight and make some plays. When we rebounded the ball, and we still didn't do it well enough at the end of the game, but when we rebounded the ball it put us in a good situation."
 
POWER PAINT
Duquesne dominated inside against the Royals, holding a 56-32 advantage in points in the paint. It marks the highest total against an NCAA Division I foe for the Dukes in the last 15 years, and Hugely IV continues to be a factor in the post. Four days after posting his first time reaching the 20-point plateau in over three years in a 92-80 win over Sacred Heart (11/7), Hugley IV notched his first double-double in a Duquesne uniform with 27 points and 11 boards. He finished 9-of-12 from the field and 9-for-11 at the free-throw line and of his 11 caroms, three were of the offensive variety. The double-double is the first for Hugley IV in almost two years, with his last coming while playing at Oklahoma when he recorded 15 points and 10 rebounds in a 107-86 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.  

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"Want to tip my hat off to Queens," Hugley IV said. "They're a really good program, led by a great coach with really good players. I think we put up a better fight. I'm here trying to play the right way, that's the bigger goal than filling the stat sheet. I'm trying to be a great person, be a great big brother and lead the right way. I've said it before, but I don't think any team practices as hard as we do in the country. With the way we go against each other, we're built for anything."
 
DEEP ROTATION
Hugley IV led five players in double figures, as joining he and Edwards was Nečas with 12 points and eight rebounds and Guinyard, who scored 10 points and also matched a career high with seven assists while recording three steals. Freshman guard Dom Aekins added 12 points, his first double-figure scoring effort at the NCAA Division I level, 10 of which came in the first half. The Dukes shot an even 50 percent (33-for-66) from the field but didn't hit their first three-pointer until Edwards buried one with the 12:08 to play in the second half. Duquesne's reserves outscored the Queens bench, 33-13, as Berman paced the Royals with 22 points to lead four players in double figures.

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"I'm proud of the guys tonight," Joyce III said. "We gave up a big lead. They had the energy and the momentum, and we came up with a couple big plays to find a way to win that game. We were pretty good in the overtime period. It was the second-chance opportunities that kept us in the scramble. We got off the hook a little bit in that they didn't capitalize on enough of them."
 
NOTES
Queens won the rebounding battle, 46-42, including a 14-9 edge on the offensive glass … The Dukes have eclipsed 80 points in their first three games of a season for the first time since 2014-15 but were 2-1 in those contests and have won their first three games when reaching the plateau for the first time since the 2008-09 campaign … Aekins shot 5-for-7 from the field and hit both of his free throws … Nečas led Duquesne in plus/minus at +23 before fouling out in overtime … Senior forward David Dixon contributed five points, seven rebounds and a pair of rejections … The Dukes notched 17 assists on their 33 field goals … Duquesne's biggest lead came at the 5:45 mark of the first half, 35-14, before the Royals closed the opening 20 minutes on an 18-6 run to close to within 41-32 at halftime.

UP NEXT
The first road game of the 2025-26 season for the Dukes closes out the Villanova Challenge, as Duquesne travels to Philadelphia, Pa., Saturday, Nov. 15, for an 8:00 p.m. tip to take on the Wildcats in a game that can be seen live on TruTV.
 
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