Pay attention, something special just might be shaping up again on The Bluff.

It’s madness. March must be just around the corner.

Tarence Guinyard scored on a coast-to-coast layup with three-tenths of a second remaining to lift Duquesne to a dramatic 62-61 victory over upset-minded La Salle on Wednesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, the Dukes’ season-high fifth consecutive victory.

Guinyard, Duquesne’s leading scorer, was held in check for much of the game but made the Dukes’ final two baskets, including the game-winner as he was fouled falling to the floor.

He immediately jumped up and strutted to half-court, waving to the La Salle bench while several teammates followed along. He then intentionally missed a free throw, and the ball bounded off the rim as time ran out on the Explorers.

Near the Duquesne bench, Jakub Necas hoisted Guinyard in the air while the Dukes celebrated the improbable victory.

“Anybody can beat anybody, especially in conference play, especially with March coming,” said Duquesne’s David Dixon, who led the Dukes with 13 points and 10 rebounds. “Keep striving for greatness.”

Remember two years ago, when Duquesne started Atlantic 10 play with five consecutive losses? The Dukes went on to win only their second A-10 championship and made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 years.

Much like its latest game, it was a tense 54-50 victory over St. Bonaventure that got Duquesne its first conference win in 2024 and set the Dukes in motion for a magical second-half run.

“Tonight kind of reminded me of that St. Bonaventure game. A grind-it-out win,” Dixon said. “It was real low-scoring, but we battled it out.”

Duquesne (16-10, 8-5) came back to beat La Salle from six points down in the final two and a half minutes and remained in the thick of the hunt for one of four double-byes in the A-10 Tournament.

“Yes, we’re going to accept our victory. Absolutely, as we should. We earned it,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said. “Did we play great basketball tonight? No. But we had some good spurts here and there. We didn’t play a complete game. We can’t harp on it too long. We play again on Saturday.”

The Dukes travel to Dayton, another team in contention for a double-bye, hoping to move ahead of the Flyers in the standings with a payback victory for Dayton’s 71-65 triumph Jan. 13 at “The Coop.”

Saint Joseph’s joins Duquesne and Dayton in a three-way tie for fourth place with five regular-season games to go after all three teams posted victories Wednesday night.

Brandon Hall added 12 points and Guinyard finished with 11 for Duquesne.

Jaden Johnson led La Salle (7-19, 3-10) with 11 points. The Explorers, who nearly overcame the loss of their leading scorer, Jaeden Marshall, for a potential upset, extended their losing streak to six games.

“Down the stretch, we were down six points at one point,” Joyce said. “You just have to win the next possession, win the next possession. All of a sudden, we found ourselves in a one-possession game, exactly where we wanted to be. We continue to show some resilience, and I’ll give us some credit for having some poise right there in that (last-second) situation, too.”

Rob Dockery’s two free throws with 2:35 to go gave La Salle a 60-54 lead. Dixon then converted a pair from the line and Necas scored with 1:17 to go to pull Duquesne within 60-58.

After Johnson’s miss for La Salle, Guinyard’s driving layup tied it with 34 seconds remaining, setting up the frantic finish.

Both teams committed 18 turnovers, a sure recipe for some bad basketball.

“It’s kind of a survive-and-advance-type feeling when you play one of those ugly games,” Joyce said. “It’s hard to look at those numbers and think about how we could’ve almost expanded the lead. But when you look closer, they tell you why: We didn’t take good care of the basketball and we gave up too many second chances (10 points). I tell the team not to watch the scoreboard. It will trick you and get you emotionally. It’s really about winning.”

With former West Virginia coach Bob Huggins seated behind the La Salle bench in support of Explorers coach Darris Nichols, Dixon rebounded a missed free throw by Dockery with six seconds left — after Dockery made the first attempt to put the Explorers up by a point — and flipped a short pass to Guinyard.

The senior guard raced through traffic in the middle of the court and scored on a driving layup while Johnson was fouling him.

“I had a timeout in my pocket, and I understood we had enough time to get the ball across the half-court line if I wanted to use it or not,” Joyce said. “But as I saw the play unfold and then not really finding a way to call it in transition, and with the ball in our most dynamic playmaker’s hands, the fastest guy on the court, I said, ‘We’ll see.’ He’s made that play in the game 1,000 times over. This time, it just happened to be with three-tenths of a second left on the clock. But I’m glad I used my eyes and didn’t just jump out there and call a timeout because I probably would have destroyed something that was good.”

Before Dockery’s go-ahead free throw, Guinyard’s layup with 34 seconds left pulled Duquesne even at 60-60.

Nichols, in his first year as La Salle’s coach, played one season at WVU under Huggins, who ranks third all time on the list of Division I career coaching victories with 934. He trails only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.

Duquesne held La Salle scoreless for the first four and a half minutes and led 17-4 near the midpoint of the first half. But La Salle, after Marshall exited with a lower body injury and did not return, got its footing and closed within 32-28 at halftime.

Marshall, who is averaging 12.0 points in 25 games, including 18 starts, was helped off the floor with a splint on his left knee and transported to an area hospital.

Duquesne again started fast in the second half, pushing its lead back to double digits, 43-30. But its offense again stalled as La Salle used an 18-3 run to take its first lead, 48-46, on Johnson’s 3-pointer with 8:59 remaining.

The Explorers never lost the lead again until Guinyard’s final shot.

“We’ll just take the win,” Joyce said, “and we continue to go forward.”

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