In an overtime battle, the Duquesne Dukes beat the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks on Wednesday night at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, 85-81. The two teams split their season series last season, with each side taking a game. Both teams came into the game looking to bounce back from losses to kick off the year.

Duquesne took an early lead with a 12-0 run, jumping in front 16-7 with about 12 minutes left in the first half. They led the rest of the first period and narrowly held a 36-30 lead at the half.

Duquesne’s lead came despite poor efficiency numbers in the first 20 minutes. They only shot 16-38 from the field and an abysmal 3-14 from beyond the arc. However, they maintained the lead by dominating the offensive glass, grabbing 7 offensive boards compared to just 2 for the Hawks. They forced 9 turnovers while only turning it over themselves 3 times.

Duquesne’s leading scorer in the first half was Senior guard Tre Dinkins III, who had 10 points at halftime. This game is a homecoming for Dinkins as he hails from Chester, PA, just a 30-minute drive from Saint Joseph’s campus in Philadelphia. This is his first year with Duquesne after transferring from Canisius University, and he is already an impact player for the team, starting in 14 of the Dukes' 16 games so far this season.

The Duke’s starting forward, Jakub Necas, went down with a lower leg injury with 5 minutes remaining in the first half and did not return for the remainder of the game. This only adds to the building injury problem for the team, as they are already without sophomore guard Jake DiMichele, who missed his ninth straight game tonight. “He’s coming along… there’s a possibility of him coming back for the next game,” Duquesne head coach Dru Joyce III said after the game.

The second half saw Dinkins come out of the gates hot, making three straight three-pointers in two minutes to give Duquesne a 50-38 lead with 15 minutes remaining. The Hawks came back, though, regaining the lead with 7:14 left in the half.

Junior forward Rasheer Fleming and Freshman guard Dasear Haskins were the key players in helping SJU fight back in the second half. They scored 14 of the 22 points for the Hawks during the run in which they took the lead back.

It was back and forth the rest of the way between the two conference foes as the game saw six ties and eight lead changes throughout the final 6 minutes of regulation. Duquense tied it up thanks to a pair of free throws by guard Cam Crawford with 23 seconds left. SJU had the final opportunity to put the game away in regulation, getting the ball back after those foul shots, but were stopped thanks to a clutch block by Junior forward David Dixon.

In overtime, SJU took a five-point lead with 3:11 remaining until the Dukes fought back and tied it up with just under a minute remaining. After a defensive stop, Dru Joyce III called a timeout to draw up a final shot. The shot ended up going to Dixon, who drained the corner three to take a three-point lead with 4.8 seconds remaining. The Dixon triple came as a surprise: he only had one made three on the season entering the night.

Dinkins and Dixon both recorded season-high scoring numbers with 26 and 17 points, respectively. Dixon also had three blocks and nine rebounds.

Next week, the Dukes travel to Washington D.C. to play George Washington University on January 15th, just before returning home to host the conference leaders St. Bonaventure on January 18th.