Soko leads Dukes to 71-64 win over N.J.I.T.

NEWARK, NJ - Ovie Soko scored a game-high 25 points and Derrick Colter scored all of his 11 in the final 4:50 as Duquesne stormed back from a 10-point second half deficit to close out the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 71-64 win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Duquesne moved to 10-9 with the win while NJIT, which was led by Terrence Smith's 20 points, dropped to 9-14.

NJIT, which led from the 18 minute mark of the first half, took its first double digit lead at 49-39 on a Smith layup with 13:37 left.

The NJIT lead was still at 10 with 9:32 to go when Soko started a 16-5 run with three straight free throws. Three other Dukes scored during the run that ended with back-to-back Colter 3-pointers that made it 59-58 with just under four minutes left.

Micah Mason, who finished with 13 points and a career-high 7 rebounds, scored on a put-back to make it 64-60 with 1:15 to go and added a pair of free throws 40 seconds later. Colter, who was 2-of-7 from the field, added five free throws in the closing seconds for the final margin.

"We needed a spark," said Duquesne coach Jim Ferry. "I thought Jerry Jones and Desmond Ridenourcame off the bench to give us that spark. We came out and pressed a little bit in the second half and got the tempo of the game going, turned them over a little bit and that's when we were able to go on our run. Once we got our stops we were able to play a little bit in transition."

NJIT led for all but the first minute in taking a 32-29 halftime lead. The Highlanders, who got 12 points from Smith, outshot the Dukes .560 to .385. DU went 1-of-10 from 3-point in the first half.

"We seemed really flat today," said Ferry. "I thought they outplayed us for 35 minutes of the game. I thought DC [Colter] really struggled tonight, but he stepped up and got those two big 3-pointers that got us going."

DU outshot NJIT .542 in the second half to finish at .460. NJIT shot .481 for the game.

Duquesne finished 3-of-16 from the 3-point arc.

The Dukes, led by 10 boards from Dominique McKoy, outrebounded NJIT 37-26 and outscored the Highlanders 15-4 off turnovers.

DU won its final four non-conference road games in finishing 8-5 in non-league play. The four non-conference road wins tied the school record set in 2009 and matched in 2011 and the .800 (4-1) non-conference road winning percentage is the best ever posted by a Duquesne team

Duquesne will head directly to Philadelphia for an Atlantic 10 clash with La Salle on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 4:00 (ROOT Sports Pittsburgh/SNY/CampusInsiders.com).