Duquesne routs Niagara to open season with positive vibes

As college basketball mismatches go, this one was typical: A heavily favored team bullies its outmanned visitors and the home faithful leave giddy.

But unlike a year ago, when the Duquesne Dukes opened with a new lineup and failed to live up to their reasonably high expectations, this revamped group in the early going is looking as though it’s refusing to fold.

Tarence Guinyard scored 19 points, Jimmie Williams added 15 and Duquesne, with three newcomers in its starting lineup, opened its 110th season of men’s basketball Monday night by notching the 1,500th victory in the program’s history, beating Niagara, 83-63, at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

When told of the milestone, Guinyard and Williams, two of the team’s four new transfers who were part of the Dukes’ opening-night lineup, expressed surprise.

“I didn’t know that, but it means a lot that we were able to be a part of it,” said Guinyard, a UT Martin transfer, who shot 6 of 8 overall and was 4 of 6 from 3-point range. He also tied Duquesne returnee Maximus Edwards with five assists each.

“Yeah, I actually didn’t know that, either,” said Williams, a South Florida transplant, who was 6-for-10 shooting, including 3 for 6 from behind the arc. “But that’s great to know. I think that’s starting us off for a great year.”

The Dukes’ all-time record stands at 1,500-1,209 (.554).

The outcome represents an about-face from last season’s five-point home loss to Lipscomb, the start of a season-opening, six-game losing streak for a Dukes team that struggled to jell with an infusion of transfers in Dru Joyce III’s first season as coach.

“We have to continue to work on our chemistry,” Joyce said. “It’s an everyday process. It’s tough to build. It’s easy to dismantle. You have to come in with the idea of being selfless, trusting your teammates, wanting the best for them.”

Joyce liked the brotherhood he witnessed in a game-that-counts atmosphere for the first time, but winning — and winning with authority — makes things easy, he said.

“It’s not easy to build chemistry because everybody wants success. They want their own personal success, too, at times. But this is basketball and it takes a team. Since June 9, we’ve competed hard with each other. Now, we’re at the point where it’s time for us to really be together and not throw blows at each other anymore. It’s time, as a unit, to give that energy to another opponent.”

Duquesne (1-0) certainly followed that script.

“It goes back to the summer, when we started to build chemistry off the court,” Guinyard said. “Then, when we got on the court, it just seems to all flow together.”

While Lipscomb, last season’s opening-night opponent, wound up winning the Atlantic Sun’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, Niagara this year was picked to finish next-to-last in the 13-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

It’s but one game, but it’s a good start for Joyce and the Dukes.

Nine days after Duquesne marched into Blacksburg, Va., on Oct. 25 and surprised ACC opponent Virginia Tech by winning an exhibition game, the Dukes came out strong in their regular-season opener and withstood anything Niagara threw at them.

They led from the opening tip.

“We had a pretty good exhibition game, and we were ready for today,” Williams said. “There’s some things we’ve got to clean up, but I think we did a pretty good job overall.”

It was far from a finished product — they rarely are this time of year — but a win is a win. And Duquesne could’ve used a few more of them last season, when the Dukes stumbled to 13-19 record after surging to the Atlantic 10 championship in 2023-24 to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid in 47 years.

“I’m excited about what we did as a group today, (and) this one does count,” Joyce said. “But the mindset of making sure we progress still stays the same. We want to accomplish things when we go out into the game. Are we better than we were yesterday? That’s big for us every step of the way, so I expect us to come into (the next) practice Wednesday with a better energy and effort to see what we can improve on.”

It was the first of three home games to open the Dukes’ schedule.

They’ll entertain Sacred Heart on Friday and Queens on Nov. 11 in the Villanova Challenge, a multi-team event that culminates Nov. 15 with Duquesne traveling to Philadelphia to face the Big East’s Wildcats.

Duquesne, whose roster that also includes four freshmen, bolted to a 9-0 lead in the first 5½ minutes and held Niagara without a field goal for more than 10 minutes.

The Dukes enjoyed their largest advantage at the 6-minute, 48-second mark on Guinyard’s four-point play.

The UT Martin transfer, who was an Ohio Valley first-team selection last season, sank a 3-pointer from deep in the corner and was fouled, converting the free throw for a 32-7 Duquesne advantage.

Not until the 5:27 mark did Niagara break double digits on a pair of free throws by Brian Griffith, part of a 10-2 Purple Eagles run that cut the Duquesne lead to 34-17.

But Duquesne, which shot 63.0% (17 for 27) in the first half and limited Niagara to 23.1% (6 for 26), regrouped to take a 41-20 halftime lead and pulled away in the second half.

The Dukes led by as many as 26 points (76-50) in the second half on a 3-point shot by Williams.

Reggie Prudhomme led Niagara with 16 points. Justin Page added 14 for the Purple Eagles, who forced 17 Duquesne turnovers and committed 16 of their own.

Duquesne shot 56.4% overall (31 for 55) and finished the game 11 of 26 from 3-point range (42.3%). The Dukes outrebounded the Purple Eagles, 32-25, with John Hugley IV, the former Pitt player and another new transfer by way of Xavier, leading the way with eight.