TribLive Logo
| Back | Text Size:
https://triblive.com/sports/jimmie-williams-leads-duquesne-men-past-fordham/

Jimmie Williams leads Duquesne men past Fordham

Triblive
By Triblive
3 Min Read Jan. 17, 2026 | 18 hours Ago
| Saturday, January 17, 2026 5:03 p.m.

After a three-game slide, Duquesne is back in the win column.

For now.

Jimmie Williams scored 19 points, and Cam Crawford added 16 to lead the up-and-down Dukes to a 74-63 road victory Saturday over Fordham at Rose Hill Gym in New York.

Tarence Guinyard narrowly missed a double-double for Duquesne (10-8, 2-3 Atlantic 10), contributing 11 points and a career-high-tying nine assists. The senior point guard also logged six steals.

“To get 11, 9 and 6, I thought his activity on the defensive end was really good today,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said.

Defense, of course, has not been Duquesne’s strong suit this year. Though the team’s offense (85.1 ppg) has been flourishing, the defense (78.6 ppg) ranks last in the A-10.

In the past two games, though, Duquesne has limited opponents to an average of 67 points.

“The thing we talked about as a team was not to watch the scoreboard,” Joyce said. “Just value the possession. Win the possession. How do we get a good shot? How do we come down and get a stop? I said that that’s all that matters today. I told them, ‘I’ve got the scoreboard. You guys play.’ They bought into that mentality, and the output was pretty good.”

DeJour Reaves, the A-10’s leading scorer, led Fordham (10-9, 1-5) with 17 points. Akira Jacobs added 13 and Christian Henry finished with 10 for the Rams, who struggled to shoot 35.7% and made just 4 of 28 3-point attempts.

Fordham, which is 1-5 in its past six games, outrebounded Duquesne, 44-36, led by Jack Whitbourn’s 15.

Williams shot 7 for 12 and has scored in double figures in 13 consecutive games for Duquesne, which finished at 45.1% shooting. The Dukes made 10 of 24 shots from long-range for 41.7%, with Crawford, the A-10’s leading 3-point shooter a year ago, converting 4 of 6.

The senior guard has struggled this season with his shooting, making only 25 of 73 attempts from behind the arc after shooting 43.1% a year ago.

Overall, he is shooting 38.3% (44 for 115).

“He’s gone through it, and I don’t know how many he’s missed,” Joyce said. “But if I brought him in here, he’d tell you. I told him, ‘Now that’s the problem right there. You’re counting too much.’ As a shooter, you have to be level with your emotions. Your misses are just as important your makes, and your makes are just as important as your misses. In real time, neither one of them matters. You just have to be prepared to shoot the next one.

“I understand the work that he puts in, so I’ve stayed confident with him through it and he’s continued to be a really good defender on the perimeter.”

Duquesne never trailed and led by as many as 13 points in the first half before settling for a 30-27 halftime advantage.

A 44-36 second-half edge was fueled by an 11-2 run that helped the Dukes match their largest lead at 58-45 with 4 minutes, 59 seconds left.

Fordham could get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Crawford scored five points and Williams, who notched 14 of his game-high points after intermission, added four during the spree.

“If you have aspirations of winning the A-10, you’d better keep taking more steps forward,” Joyce said.

Duquesne returns home to face once-beaten Saint Louis on Tuesday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The Billikens’ only loss is a 78-77 setback to Stanford on Nov. 28 at the Acrisure Challenge in Palm Springs, Calif.


Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)