GAME 7
Central State (3-2) vs. Duquesne (4-2)
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 | 6:00 p.m.
Pittsburgh, Pa. | UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse (3,500)
 
Stream: ESPN+ with Tim Benz (pxp) & Ellis Cannon (color)
Radio: 104.7 HD2 | iHeartRadio with Ray Goss ('58) (pxp) & Noah Buono ('22) (color)
 
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Opening Tip
 
- The Duquesne University men's basketball team closes out the first month of the 2025-26 season by opening a three-game homestand at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Wednesday with a 6:00 p.m. tip against Central State.
 
- The Dukes are coming off a 93-86 loss to Northeastern (Nov. 22) at the Morgan & Morgan Classic, which was played at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.
 
- Senior guard Tarence Guinyard led Duquesne against the Huskies with 19 points as all five starters scored in double figures. Graduate student forward John Hugley IV added 18 points and six rebounds, junior guard Jimmie Williams scored 17 and junior forward Jakub Nečas contributed 14 points and five boards. Redshirt senior guard Cam Crawford, meanwhile, added 11 as the performance vs. Northeastern marked the second time this season through six games the Dukes had five players score in double figures.
 
- As a unit, Duquesne ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring offense at 86.2 points per game. However, the Dukes have allowed at least 80 points four times in six games after yielding 80 or more points just four times all of last season.
 
- Duquesne is also one of three teams in the A-10 converting over 50 of its attempts from the field, as the Dukes sit third in the conference at 51 percent (183-for-359) and trail only Saint Louis (.535) and George Washington (.510).
 
- The 2025-26 season marks the 110th year of Duquesne basketball. The Dukes started play in 1913-14 (DU did not field a team in 1944-45-46 due to World War II). Thanks to an 83-63 victory over Niagara (Nov. 3) in its 2025-26 season opener, Duquesne earned program victory No. 1,500.
 
- In today's day and age of college basketball with the NCAA Transfer Portal, Duquesne offers senior forward David Dixon, who will play his final season with the Dukes in 2025-26 and has spent his entire career on the Bluff. Dixon, 6'9" and 230 pounds, owns career totals of 598 points and 443 rebounds and last season became just the second player in program history to eclipse career totals of both 100 blocks and 100 dunks.
 
- Dixon is one of just four players in the Atlantic 10 this season that have spent their entire career with one program, joining 6'10" forward Sean Logan of Davidson, 6'10" forward Christian Fermin of VCU and 6'11" center Mike Walz of Richmond. Ironically, each of the four student-athletes to have played their entire career at one institution are post players.
 
- Redshirt senior guard Maximus Edwards scored 10 points in a 92-80 win over Sacred Heart (Nov. 7) to reach exactly 1,000 points for his career. Named the 2023 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year, Edwards scored 722 in two seasons at George Washington before transferring to the Bluff and has scored 305 points in his time at Duquesne. He owns a career scoring average of 10.3 points in 100 games at the NCAA Division I level thanks to 1,027 points.
 
- Duquesne continues its three-game homestand after hosting the Marauders Tuesday, Dec. 2, with a 7:00 p.m. tip against William & Mary.
 
At The Helm – Dru Joyce III was named the 18th head coach in the 110-year history of Duquesne basketball March 28, 2024, and in his second year at the helm in 2025-26. He owns an overall record of 17-21 (.447) in his first head coaching job. Joyce III, a native of Akron, Ohio, spent two seasons as associate head coach for the Dukes under Keith Dambrot from 2022 to 2024, helping guide Duquesne to an overall record of 45-25 (.643), including a 20-16 (.556) mark in the Atlantic 10, during that span. The Dukes made an appearance in the 2023 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) before earning the automatic bid for the A-10 in the 2024 NCAA Championship by winning four games in five days en route to the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship crown in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center. Duquesne, as a No. 11 seed, made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1977 and earned its first victory in the championship since 1969 thanks to a 71-67 win over No. 6 seed BYU in Omaha, Neb., at CHI Health Center Arena. 
 
Scouting the Marauders – Member of Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) out of NCAA Division II ... Located in Wilberforce, Ohio ... Wednesday marks the first meeting ever between Duquesne and Central State ... The Marauders are the second team this season the Dukes are facing for the first time in program history, joining Queens (Nov. 11) ... Duquesne earned an 87-81 overtime win over the Royals as part of the Villanova Challenge ... Central State owns an overall record of 3-2 (.600) entering Wednesday's game and is coming off a 99-75 win over Allen (Nov. 22) ... In the victory over Allen, the Marauders finished 18-for-30 (60%) from beyond the arc, including a 7-for-9 performance from guard Keionte Cornelius, who scored a game-high 26 points ... Cornelius owned 30 points in the previous four games before his outburst against the Yellow Jackets ... Guard Ramar Pryor leads Central State in scoring at 16.6 points per game and has converted 50.8 percent (31-for-61) of his attempts from the field, while forward Javantae Randle is shooting 62.5 percent (25-for-40) from the floor and averages 11.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest ... Of the 32 boards this season for Randle, 15 have come on the offensive glass ... Central State opened its 2025-26 with an exhibition game at Detroit Mercy (Oct. 30), dropping a 75-67 decision ... In his second year leading the Marauders is Travis Lewis (Eastern Michigan '07), who was named head coach of the program in July of 2024 ... Lewis spent three seasons on the staff at Cleveland State (2021-24) out of the Horizon League, including the 2021-22 campaign as video coordinator while Duquesne head coach Dru Joyce III was an assistant coach with the Vikings under Dennis Gates ... Lewis was a two-sport athlete at Eastern Michigan, playing four seasons with the football team and two years with the men's basketball program ... Wednesday marks the first true road game of the year for Central State outside of its exhibition game at Detroit Mercy ... The Marauders average 79.2 points per game entering Wednesday's tilt and are converting 47.9 percent (138-for-288) of their attempts from the field, including 44.2 percent (57-for-129) from beyond the arc. 
 
Northeastern Leftovers – Each of the three wins in the all-time series for the Huskies have come on a neutral court ... Northeastern shot 55.2 percent (32-for-58) from the field, finishing with the exact same number of field goals as Duquesne in one less attempt as the Dukes converted 54.2 percent (32-for-59) ... Each team hit five three-pointers ... Freshman guard Xavier Abreu led all scorers in the contest with 32 points (11-17 FG) while adding five rebounds and three steals for the Huskies ... Northeastern owned a 36-27 edge in rebounding, including 9-5 on the offensive glass ... The reserves for the Huskies owned a commanding 60-7 edge in bench points ... Haris Elezovic notched a double-double off the bench for Northeastern with 17 points and 10 rebounds ... Duquesne held a 20-17 edge in points off turnovers and a 50-48 cushion in points in the paint.
 
Offensive Flow – Senior guard Tarence Guinyard has gotten off to as good of a start offensively as almost any member of the Dukes in the last 25 years. Entering Wednesday's game, Guinyard, who leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring with an average of 20.3 points per game, has matched the best scoring average by a Duquesne student-athlete through six games since former forward Wayne Smith (1998-2002) at the turn of the century. In the first six games of the 1999-2000 campaign, Smith, a four-year starter as a swingman who ranks fourth all-time on the Bluff with 1,820 career points, also averaged 20.3 points. In addition to pacing the A-10 in scoring, Guinyard's name is also up-and-down the leaderboard in a number of categories. He leads the circuit in assists (5.3 per game) while ranking eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.89) and 11th in steals (1.83 per contest). Guinyard also ranks 11th in the conference in three-point field goals made per game (2.60), minutes per game (31.2) and three-point field goal percentage (.483).
 
Czech Mate – Junior forward Jakub Nečas put together arguably his most impressive performance on the Bluff as part of the Morgan & Morgan Classic in Akron, Ohio, against Northeastern at Lebron James Arena. In just under 23 minutes of action, Nečas scored a season-high 14 points and also added five rebounds and a steal. He shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field and was also 2-for-2 at the free-throw line in logging his second double-figure scoring effort of the 2025-26 season. Picking his spots in the post this year, Nečas enters Wednesday's game against Central State having converted a robust 73.7 percent (14-for-19) of his attempts from the field in supplying averages of 6.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. Despite the loss to the Huskies at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, the Dukes own a record of 7-2 (.778) over the last three seasons when Nečas scores 10 or more points in a game.
 
Home Cooking – The Dukes return to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Wednesday, and forward John Hugley IV will look to continue his success in the friendly confines. Hugley IV has scored 20 or more points in three consecutive home games and is looking to be the first to turn the trick in four straight home games since forward Ovie Soko (2009-14) during his lone season on the Bluff. Over the course of four home games in January and February of 2014 against Atlantic 10 foes, one which included a designated home game at PPG Paints Arena, Soko averaged 23.8 points, a streak that began with a 27-point outburst in an 83-81 win over St. Bonaventure (Jan. 25, 2014). Hugley IV enters Wednesday's game averaging 19.8 points and 8.0 rebounds at home as the Dukes are 4-0 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. He has shot 65.1 percent (28-for-43) from the field and 84 percent (21-for-25) at the free-throw line in those contests.
 
Three's Company – Junior guard Jimmie Williams has proven to be a capable piece to the rotation in the early going, as he contributed 17 points while notching a career-high six steals vs. Northeastern (Nov. 22) at the Morgan & Morgan Classic in Akron, Ohio. In the first six games of the 2025-26 campaign, Williams has already set career highs in points (18 at Villanova), rebounds (nine vs. Sacred Heart and Loyola-Md.) and steals (6) and is producing averages of 12.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.5 thefts per contest while shooting 45.8 percent (27-for-59) from the field. He ranks fourth in the Atlantic 10 in steals per game and, along with guard Tarence Guinyard and forward John Hugley IV, each transfers brought in for the 2025-26 season, have combined to average 50.0 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.8 assists in six games.
 
Next In Line – Thanks to redshirt senior guard Maximus Edwards scoring his 1,000th career point in a 92-80 victory over Sacred Heart (Nov. 7) to open the Villanova Challenge, the next player in line within reach of the mark is forward John Hugley IV. Entering Wednesday's game, Hugley IV owns career totals of 976 points and 508 rebounds, needing 24 points to reach 1,000. The active leader for points at Duquesne belongs to senior forward David Dixon, who owns 598 since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign as well as 443 career rebounds.
 
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