Noah Fries | staff writer

The Duquesne men’s basketball team started out hot and held on late for an 84-75 victory against Stony Brook on Saturday afternoon at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Graduate forward John Hugley IV led the way for the Dukes with 25 points on 53.3% shooting. Hugley also nailed two threes — the first six points of the game — and hit 7 of 8 free throws to help seal the win for Duquesne.

“I just want to give a special thanks to my teammates and my coaches for believing in me,” Hugley said, “and trusting me and calling plays for me to go score the ball. I’m just grateful to be here, be in this position and continue to have a great college career.”

Hugley’s floater in the paint with 8:06 remaining in the first half gave the big man 1,000 points on his career.

“Anytime you reach a milestone of 1,000 points in your college career, it’s an accolade that shouldn’t be just looked over,” Duquesne Head Coach Dru Joyce III said. “It comes with a testament of hard work and consistency.

Junior guard Jimmie Williams added 17 points for the Dukes, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and going 3 of 5 from beyond the arc.

Hugley scored 8 of the first 10 points for Duquesne as it jumped out to an early advantage. Stony Brook took its first lead of the game at 13-12 and led 16-15 at the second media timeout. However, that would be the last time Stony Brook held an advantage over the Dukes.

Hugley would lead the charge on an 11-0 run for the Dukes that ended after a technical foul on Hugley for celebrating a bucket, giving Stony Brook two free throws.

Off a block by redshirt senior guard Maximus Edwards, senior forward David Dixon came down the floor with a head of steam and dunked over a Stony Brook defender for an and-1, bringing the entire fieldhouse to its feet.

By the time Stony Brook hit its first field goal in almost seven minutes of game time, with 5:32 remaining in the first half, the Dukes had leapt out to a double-digit lead.

Duquesne would take a 40-28 lead into halftime after the first stanza was categorized by some stifling defense — switching between man and 3-2 zone defense giving Stony Brook fits — and holding an advantage on the glass after the early dominance from Hugley.

However, Stony Brook wouldn’t go away without a fight. The Seawolves bounced back from shooting just 26.5% from the field in the first half by hitting two early threes to cut Duquesne’s lead to single digits.

The Seawolves drained 14 of their first 20 shots from the floor in the second half, but Duquesne seemed to always have an answer. Stony Brook couldn’t cut the lead any closer than six through the majority of the second half.

“I think they’re starting to get comfortable with their opportunities,” Joyce noted, “which is a really good thing. We know what [Jakub Necas’] skill set is and how talented he can be. Alex Williams is starting to get in the fold more and more. And then you get in [redshirt sophomore guard] Jake [DiMichele] and Max [Edwards] into the fold too. We needed each of those guys.”

Necas was awarded a crucial and-1 with 10:31 remaining to push the lead briefly back to double digits and put the Dukes into the bonus for the rest of the game.

Being in the bonus would turn out to be very good for the Dukes, as they hit 73.1% of their free throws throughout the game to keep the Seawolves at bay.

Stony Brook would get within 5 with 33 seconds left, but free throws made by redshirt senior guard Cam Crawford and Dixon would push the lead to 7.

With 14 seconds remaining while up seven, Jimmie Williams got a steal and slammed it home to put the exclamation point on the win for Duquesne — especially after a Necas block with 4 seconds left — to send the crowd into a frenzy.

Necas tallied 11 points for the Dukes to go with a team-high nine rebounds and two blocks.

Senior guard Tarence Guinyard, Duquesne’s leading scorer on the season with 18.5 points per game coming in, tallied just five points but made his presence felt with six boards and six assists.

“Winning just feels great,” Williams said. “It was great energy from everybody on the team. The bench was turnt up. It was a great win, so I was just really happy to win. It just felt really good.”

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu