PITTSBURGH — Duquesne's Jerni Kiaku hit an off-balance leaner from the top of the key with 0.3 seconds on the clock to lift the Dukes over Longwood, 70-68, in the first round of the 2025 Postseason WNIT at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse Tuesday.

Duquesne rallied from down nine at the start of the fourth quarter after the Lancers led by as many as 12 at 54-42 with 38 ticks left in the third.

The Lancers scored the first 11 points of the second half, extending their run that spanned both halves to 18-3 before the Dukes (20-12) came all the way back to advance in the tournament. Duquesne moves on to face Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,  Sunday at 1 p.m.

"You got two defensive-minded teams that just really take pride in their defense. And both teams got some special players that can put the ball in the basket, too. And so, loved everything, obviously, about that game until that last shot went in for them.," said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. "But kudos to them. They're on a mission, and they challenged us, and we responded, and we just came up short tonight."

Trailing 68-66 with 24.8 seconds remaining Frances Ulysse gathered the rebound of a Kiki McIntyre shot' miss and was fouled. She knocked in both from the line for the tie, setting the stage for the game-winning play.

Longwood, which finishes the season 22-12 overall, tying the Lancers' Division I record for wins, hit a nine 3-pointers and 15-of-16 from the line.

Senior Malea Brown led Longwood with 20 points, including going 4-for-6 from 3-point range, with eight rebounds. Amor Harris scored 12 points and Ulysse added 10.

Duquesne tied the game with an 8-0 run over a 3:21 stretch in the fourth to make it 61-61 with 2:56 left.

The Lancers built their lead in the third doing what made the successful all season long.

"We were getting stops, and we were converting to offense," Lang-Montgomery said. We were attacking, had some big plays, some big dishes, the finish and the paint. We had threes. We were playing free, and unfortunately, we just couldn't hold on to that lead."

In the fourth the Dukes got back into into with their defense.

"They got a couple of turnovers that they converted and got it back even," Lang-Mongtomery said. "And it was a dogfight from there."

The Lancers finished 39 percent from both the floor and distance on the night and got scoring contributions from all nine players to see playing time, helping to combat a 25-point, seven steal game from Megan McConnell and 17 points and 12 boards by Kiaku.