The victory upped Dukes' record to 3-0 - marking the first time since 1998-99 that a DU team has opened the season with three-straight wins. The 27-point margin was the largest in a road game since an 87-58 win (+29) at Robert Morris on Dec. 22, 1994. It was just the second time in the past 35 years that a Duquesne team won a road game by more than 25 points.
Kojo Mensah scored 12 points and had five assists, Damian Saunders had 10 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and four steals and Aaron Jackson handed out a game-high seven assists for the Dukes.
Paulius Packevicius led Rice (0-2) with 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
The game - Duquesne's first on the road this season - was played at Merrell Center in Katy, Texas which is approximately 30 miles from Rice's downtown Houston campus. The Owls' on-campus facility, Autry Court, is undergoing renovation. The crowd of 458 was the smallest a Duquesne team had ever played in front of on the road.
Neither team led by more than four in a first half that saw six ties and three lead changes. The Dukes, who went 0-of-8 from the 3-point arc in the opening 20 minutes, took a 32-30 halftime lead on a pair of Achara free throws with a minute left.
Duquesne scored the first five points of the second half and had a 43-38 lead with 15 minutes left when Achara, who scored 13 in the second half, started an 8-0 run with a pair of free throws and ended it with a layup off a pass from Mensah to make the score 51-38 with 13:11 to go. DU maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
The Dukes hit five 3-pointers in the second half in outscoring the Owls 54-29.
"We didn't convert a lot of transition opportunities in the first half," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "Rice did a good job of getting back. In the second half we made a few jump shots which opened things up inside. We really made some good decisions on the break."
Duquesne assisted on 20 of 27 field goals and went 27-of-35 from the foul line in a game that saw a total of 53 fouls called - including 30 on the Dukes.
Defensively, Duquesne held Rice to 32.1 percent shooting and forced 28 Owl turnovers. It marked the third-straight game DU has held its opponent under 40 percent. In 29 games last season, the Dukes held just two opponents under 40 percent.
Duquesne will be looking to go 4-0 for the first time since 1986-87 when they take the court at Oakland University on Tuesday night at 7:30 tip. The team will fly directly from Houston to Detroit early Sunday morning.
NOTES
- The previous smallest crowd a Duquesne team had played before on the road was 500 at Temple on Feb. 12, 1983. --
That game was played after a blizzard on Friday that shut down Philadelphia. Only things moving - Broad St. subway. 500 was like a sellout that day -- ed.
- DU's largest lead was 28 points with 1:05 left in the game.
- Eight different players saw between 19 and 25 minutes of action.
- The Dukes missed their first eight 3-point attempts of the game, with Bill Clark breaking the drought at the 19:02 mark of the second half.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story)
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