Even in the modern era, it’s not unheard of for a Top 25 basketball game to pop up at Duquesne.
It happens every once in a while in the mid-major Atlantic 10.
Tuesday night was one of those times with No. 24 Saint Louis in the house, and Duquesne, long ago a national power of its own, tried mightily to give its fans a time to remember.
The Dukes would like to forget it, though, after nearly upsetting the Billikens at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
Dion Brown, Robbie Avila and Trey Green scored 14 points each, and Saint Louis, back in the rankings for the first time in five years, held off a furious Duquesne rally to beat the Dukes, 81-77.
The Billikens (18-1, 6-0), who shot 49.1%, won their 12th consecutive game after nearly blowing a 17-point second-half lead.
“We were very fortunate to win the game,” Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz said. “They just absolutely manhandled us for most of the 40 minutes. It’s the first time all year that I feel like we physically were beat up.”
Brady Dunlap added 11 points, and Kellen Thames scored 10 for Saint Louis, whose only loss is a 78-77 decision to Stanford on a last-second 3-pointer.
Jimmie Williams’ career-high 28 points paced Duquesne (10-9, 2-4). Tarence Guinyard added 14 points, and David Dixon grabbed 10 rebounds for the Dukes, who travel to Loyola Chicago on Saturday.
Duquesne won the rebounding battle 42-38. But the Dukes shot just 34.8%.
“We had a lot of fight,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said. “It went really crazy for them real quick, and all of a sudden you find yourselves in a one-point game.”
Almost immediately after a Dixon dunk got Duquesne within 78-77 with 27.4 seconds left, Dunlap sank two free throws to give Saint Louis a three-point lead. Brown followed with 1 of 2 from the line with 10 seconds to go to seal the victory for the Billikens after Williams misfired on a contested potentially tying 3-pointer for Duquesne.
“We discussed it as a learning moment, not to settle for what seemed to be the tying shot,” Joyce said. “Make it another possession, and another possession. We saw how they were handling possessions. They were struggling either from the free-throw line or just handling the pressure of getting the ball in. We talked about trying to extend the game and take the 3 only when necessary.
“We’ll live. I’m going to live with (Williams) and my team.”
Said Williams: “I was in the moment. You can’t really think when you’re playing. Can’t change it. It is what it is.”
Saint Louis pulled into a first-place tie with 6-0 George Mason in the A-10, a half-game ahead of Dayton, also unbeaten at 5-0.
But it wasn’t easy.
“They dominated us on the glass and were really super physical on both ends. They were certainly much better than us in those areas,” Schertz said.
It marked the first appearance by an AP Top 25 team on Duquesne’s campus since then-No. 19 Saint Louis escaped the former Palumbo Center in 2014 with a 76-72 victory over the Dukes.
The Dukes hung with the Billikens in an intense first half that ended with Saint Louis ahead 40-38.
The Billikens began the second half on a 19-4 run to build a 59-42 advantage but couldn’t shake Duquesne.
“We came out sloppy,” Williams said. “We just didn’t have the energy like we did at the start of the game. We all talked and said we’ve got to pick it up. We tried to fight our way back into it, but it was a little bit too late.”
Joyce said the Dukes “didn’t come with the right fight and energy to sustain” their first-half pace.
“The team is smart enough and responsible enough to understand where we had the lapse,” he said. “The first 10 minutes of the second half, we just stayed in the locker room for the most part.”
After allowing Saint Louis to pull away, the Dukes rallied with a 12-2 run cut the deficit to 60-54 on Williams’ steal and driving layup with 9:52 left.
Saint Louis pushed the lead back to double digits and was ahead 72-58 when Duquesne began to steadily chip away at the lead again, closing within a point before succumbing.
“I could not tell you what we doing in the last five minutes, other than to make it exciting for the fans — and we did,” Schertz said.
Saint Louis can tie the 1993-94 team’s best start in program history with a victory at St. Bonaventure on Friday night.
The most recent time Duquesne played against a ranked team in Pittsburgh occurred Jan. 29, 2020, when the Dukes fell to No. 7 Dayton, 73-69, at PPG Paints Arena.
Duquesne’s last home victory against a ranked team came during the 2010-11 season, a 78-66 victory against No. 19 Temple.
Two years ago, during Duquesne’s run to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 seasons, the Dukes defeated a pair of ranked teams. They bested No. 24 Dayton, 65-57, in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament and upset No. 21 BYU in an NCAA first-round game.
