Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University men's basketball team dropped its first home game of the 2025-26 season Tuesday, falling to William & Mary, 83-79, at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Dukes slipped to 5-3 (.625) overall.
POINTS OF EMPHASIS
The Tribe, which built a 16-point advantage in the first half, used a 12-3 burst with under five minutes to play to erase a five-point deficit and grab an 81-77 lead with 1:43 remaining. William & Mary finished 15-for-30 from beyond the arc in the victory, with Cade Haskins igniting the deciding run with a triple and Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi capping it with a three-pointer of his own. Junior guard
Jimmie Williams hit a jumper with 1:15 to play to pull the Dukes to within 81-79, but after a missed jumper by Chase Lowe, Duquesne was unable to convert for the tie or the lead with under 30 seconds remaining. The Tribe sealed the win at the free-throw line, with Vahlberg Fasasi hitting a pair with 12.7 seconds left.
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"We showed some fight," head coach
Dru Joyce III said. "We took some punches. They shot the ball really well consistently throughout the game. A lot of unforced turnovers. It's unfortunate, because we're hurting ourselves by giving the ball back 21 times. Self-inflicted wounds. I didn't think we were strong with the basketball. Erratic. Jumping off our feet. Not catching the ball with two hands. Not taking the simple play. When you're playing a team that wants to play frantic, they're actually sometimes doing a favor for you. They're leaving plays open, but you have to take simple plays, and we didn't do that."
HOT START
William & Mary (8-2) hit each of its first six shots from the field, grabbing a double-digit advantage just over three minutes into the contest, 16-4, after a three-pointer from Jo'el Emanuel. The lead for the Tribe bulged to 38-22 with 5:31 to go before the break after yet another triple, this one from Reese Miller. Duquesne chipped away, closing to within 48-40 at halftime thanks to a spark from redshirt senior forward
Alex Williams, who scored seven points in the opening frame and notched his first double-figure scoring effort on the Bluff with 12 points.
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"Shot selection is important, taking care of the basketball is important," Joyce III said. "In the second half we closed and got it to a five-point game, but with five minutes to go we have to able to manage that lead. We had three turnovers mixed in that last five minutes. Some questionable shot selection. You also can't foul 94 feet from the basket. You have to make teams go play basketball. You're going to have to fight some teams off. We showed glimpses of that, but we played around with fire, and that's a dangerous game."
THE RUN
Haskins, who finished 4-for-8 from deep and contributed 16 points for William & Mary, buried a three-pointer with just under 12 minutes left to give the Tribe a 64-50 edge, but the Dukes used a 23-4 run to grab their first lead of the contest, 73-68, at the 5:47 mark of the second half.
Alex Williams started the run with a three-pointer from the corner, and a triple from redshirt sophomore guard
Jake DiMichele from the opposite corner in front of the home bench gave Duquesne a 67-66 lead. Lowe would answer on the next possession for William & Mary with a layup before a three-point play from senior forward
David Dixon stretched the lead for the Dukes to 70-68, and a driving layup by junior guard
Jimmie Williams, who finished with a team-high 16 points, gave Duquesne its biggest advantage of the contest.
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"I'm new here, but I've been with these guys for months,"
Jimmie Williams said. "We have everything we need to win. We have all the pieces we need. We just have to be ready from the jump. I have to be better myself, too. As a team, we just have to buy in defensively. We all can score. Even tonight, I didn't feel like all the shots were falling, but we all can score. We really just have to defend. I'm not worried about offense. I'm not really worried about defense, either. We just have to give more effort and be more disciplined."
NOTES
For the third consecutive game a total of five players scored in double figures in a balanced offensive attack for Duquesne, as in addition to 16 from
Jimmie Williams and 12 from
Alex Williams, senior guard
Tarence Guinyard finished with 13 points and four assists and Dixon and junior forward Jakub Nečas each scored 11 … William & Mary finished 28-for-55 from the field (50.9%), with over half its field goals coming from beyond the arc … Duquesne held a 36-23 edge in points in the paint, a 20-3 cushion in second chance points and a 34-16 advantage in bench points … The season-high 21 turnovers for the Dukes led to the Tribe owning a 27-17 edge in points off turnovers … Vahlberg Fasasi led all scorers in the game with 17 points as William & Mary also had five players reach double figures in scoring … The contest featured one tie and four lead changes.
UP NEXT
Duquesne concludes its three-game homestand Saturday, Dec. 6, with a 2:00 p.m. tip against Stony Brook, its third opponent from the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) in four games.
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