Pittsburgh, Pa---LG Gill scored a team-high 17 points to lead four players in double figures as Duquesne pulled away to an 83-61 win over Howard University in a non-conference game at the JA Palumbo Center.  The loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Bison (4-4).
           
Gill tallied 11 of his points in the first 20 minutes and TySean Powell contributed 10 of his 13 as the Dukes (3-1) led 41-30 at the half.  The Bison were able to stay close due to the scoring James "J-Byrd" Daniel, III and James "JC" Carlton, who combined for 21 of their team's first half points.
           
Duquesne threatened to put the game away at the beginning of the second half when Gill and Powell fueled a run that opened a 17-point lead.  But the scrappy Bison rallied on the scoring of James "J-Byrd" Daniel, III, who scored 11 of his game-high 22 after intermission and James "JT" Miller who tallied seven of his 14 to cut the deficit to 54-47 with 11:33 remaining.
           
The game may well have hinged on that point in the game because Howard had three chances to cut even deeper into the lead, but failed on each occasion.  From there, the Dukes put the game away as Micah Mason hit back-to-back threes and Jordan Stevens supplied some muscle baskets that extended the lead to 20

"I knew it would be a game of runs," said Howard head coach Kevin Nickelberry.  "It just so happened that they had a big one in the middle of the second half that we couldn't recover from. I wasn't happy with the fast break points we gave up and the fast breaks we did not take advantage of.  I thought that was the difference in the game."
           
Duquesne, which came into the game averaging 91 points per game and shooting 52 percent as a team, were held to under their average, but they connected on 52 percent (32 of 61) and 48 (14 of 29) percent from three.
           
Howard was hurt in the first half by foul trouble as Miller picked up two and was limited to 13 minutes.  The second half, Carlton got into foul trouble and played only four minutes and went scoreless.
           
"There was another key point in the second half when I had to sit Carlton and Miller at the same time because of foul trouble," recalled Nickelberry. "The team needs them in the game so they have to do a better job of staying out of foul trouble at critical times in the game."
           
In addition to Gill's 17, the Dukes got 13 from Powell, 12 from Mason and 11 from Eric James off the bench.
           
Daniel led all scorers with 22, Miller with 14 and Carlton with 10.

The Bison take on North Carolina A&T on Saturday in the MEAC season opener at 2 pm in Burr Gymnasium and then will travel to Brooklyn, NY to take on the Eagles of North Carolina Central in the Big Apple Classic at the Barclays Center at 6 pm.
           
"Now it's about getting healthy as we can and preparing for a tough back-to-back league slate this weekend," noted Nickelberry.