ALTOONA, Pa. -- Duquesne basketball has shown a flair for the dramatic in recent years and Saturday's 72-71 loss to Marshall had the dramatics and more of an instant college basketball classic.
The Dukes jumped out to an early 28-11 lead before a 7-0 run by the Thundering Herd helped crawl them back into the game. That lead was benefited by Marshall being ice cold from behind the three-point line missing it's first 16 shots from behind the arc.
Scoring the final four points of the first half, the Thundering Herd trailed the Dukes 33-26 entering the half. Duquesne would lengthened the lead to 10 points. And then Marshall thundered back to take their first lead of the game with 10:42 left.
Leon Ayers III drained a three-pointer with 2:41 left to give the Dukes a 69-68 advantage before Kevin Easley would expand that lead to 3 with a made jump shot with just under two minutes to play.
Primo Spears stole a Marshall pass, but missed the foul-line jumper which gave the ball back to the Thundering Herd with 17 seconds to play. The rebound gave Marshall just enough time to drain a last second three to go up 72-71. Spears got the ball on the Duquesne possession but his buzzer beating shot was swatted out of bounds as time expired.
Spears scored a career-high 23 points for the Dukes while Tre Williams added 14 points and Easley dropped 10.
It was the first road loss of the season for Duquesne.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE SCHEDULE
The Dukes head to Chicago to take on DePaul Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
Visit our Duquesne team page for everything.
