With 8:23 left in last night's men's basketball game, Penn State was trailing Duquesne, 57-54. But the Lions came alive down the stretch, outscoring the Dukes, 15-2.

The rally gave Penn State a 69-59 win over the former Atlantic-10 foe in front of a boisterous crowd at Rec Hall.

"It's really a good win," Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "I felt that this was a game we could play well in and lose."

The win moved Penn State to 15-6, while Duquesne dropped to 9-9.

DeRon Hayes was the offensive star of the game for the Lions, with a 19-point, 10-rebound effort -- the fourth double-double of his career.

"I like the 10 rebounds," Hayes said. "I don't think I've been rebounding as well as I could."

Freddie Barnes chipped in with 15 points and nine assists and Eric Carr scored 10. Coming off of a 30-point career night Saturday, Monroe Brown was held to only six points on 2-for-12 shooting.

"There's no way Monnie let his cold night shooting affect his defense," Parkhill said. Brown had three steals and a blocked shot.

"To be honest, I didn't even realize Monnie hadn't scored in the first half," Barnes said. "We came out at halftime and I saw double zeros and I said, 'Monnie you've got to get it going.' "

With the game tied at eight, Barnes passed to Carr on a fast break and the junior forward finished it off with a one-handed dunk. Brian Anderson got the crowd into the game even more when he stuffed Duquesne forward Mark Gilbert's attempt at a jump shot. Six seconds later, Carr got his easiest hoop of the game when goaltending was called on the Dukes' Alan Watkins. The crowd roared with approval.

Penn State continued an 11-2 run and got out to a 19-10 lead when Matt Gaudio hit two free throws with 12:12 left until halftime. Gaudio, who came into the game shooting only 65.9 percent from the stripe, was 9-of-11 last night. The Lions ended the first half 12-of-18 from the line, while Duquesne was only 2-of-3.

"They do a good job of getting the ball in there, they do a good job posting up -- much better than we do and that's just part of the deal," Duquesne Coach John Carrol said."I thought we did a pretty good job on the boards."

The rebounding duel was almost even -- Penn State held a 35-34 edge.

Duquesne closed to within 24-23, but Hayes was fouled and made both free throws to increase the Lions' lead. Less than 10 seconds later, the Dukes' Effrem Whitehead took a 14-foot jumper and got the shooters' roll. Whitehead scored again 15 seconds later with a running layup to give the Dukes a 27-26 lead.

When James Hargrove hit a 3-pointer with 3:51 left in the half, he gave the Dukes a lead they wouldn't relinquish until early in the second half.

"I really was concerned at halftime," Parkhill said. "We played real well the first eight or nine minutes and then we sort of backed in to our little slump that we have a tendency to do.

"We just really felt that if continued to allow them to score on the transition and get offensive rebounds that there was no chance for us to win."

But the Lions improved their work in the second stanza and took control of the game -- allowing the Dukes only two points in the last 8:23.

The Lions were able to dominate the paint down the stretch largely because the Dukes' sophomore center Derrick Alston fouled out with 3:45 left. He left the game with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Gaudio closed the score to 57-56 when he hit two free throws with 8:09 left. Then, about a minute later, Hayes tried a 17-footer, missed and got his own rebound. While two Dukes tried to strip the ball from him, Hayes regained control, scored and was fouled. He hit the free throw to give the Lions a 59-57 lead.

Brown provided another highlight at the end of the game. With 2:25 left, Barnes stole the ball and threw a 40-foot pass to Brown, who finished the break with a one-handed dunk, electrifying the crowd one last time.