The Iowa men’s basketball team is off to its worst start in 39 years following another poor shooting night that resulted in a second-consecutive home loss to a non-power-conference school.

Just two days after Iowa head coach Todd Lickliter’s team fell to Texas-San Antonio, 62-50, Duquesne nipped Iowa, 52-50, in the preliminary round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.

Duquesne’s Bill Clark nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 12 seconds left to give the Dukes a 52-50 lead. After Iowa’s Anthony Tucker missed a mid-range jumper with two ticks on the clock, B.J. Monteiro swatted away Eric May’s desperation shot.

“That’s probably the one shot I’ve ever taken in my basketball career I wish I could have back,” Tucker said. “It was a wide-open 15-footer, and I just short-armed it.”

Freshman Cully Payne’s 3-pointer — his first points of the game — with just under three minutes to go gave the Hawkeyes their first lead since 4:55 remaining in the first half. Iowa junior Jarryd Cole drew a pivotal charging foul on Clark on the following possession.

After a missed triple from Tucker, the Dukes’ Jason Duty nailed his first points of the game with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, regaining a two-point lead for Duquesne.

Brennan Cougill grabbed an offensive rebound, made a lay-up, and was fouled with 41 seconds remaining. The Hawkeye freshman gave Iowa a 50-49 lead with a made free throw.

But despite being held to only 19 second-half points, the Dukes left Iowa City with their first road win ever against a Big Ten school.

“I just thought that Iowa just did a tremendous job defensibly on us in the second half,” Dusquesne head coach Ron Everhart said. “Normally, we’re an offense that likes to cut, and move, and get down the floor, especially in transition.”

Lickliter said, “We were getting stops. We were really defending. We just couldn’t capitalize. … It was incredible.”

A dunk by sophomore Aaron Fuller excited the crowd early in the second half, but the Hawkeye faithful were soon silenced after Damian Saunders’ fast-break lay-in and a few stagnant offensive possessions.

Clark officially ended any of Iowa’s momentum with his third 3-pointer of the game, putting the Dukes up 11 with 15:45 remaining in the second half. He finished the game with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting.

Tucker’s range from long distance kept Iowa in the game. When the sophomore nailed his second triple of the second half with under 14 minutes to play, he screamed to the Carver-Hawkeye Arena ceiling as he walked back down the floor.

But it wasn’t enough to give the Hawkeyes their first victory of the season.

“Any game you can win, you have to win,” Cole said. “It’s just not at all acceptable. We’re going to work our tails off to come back and try to defend Carver on Friday.”