Duquesne capped its most unexpected and unbelievable eight days of basketball in recent memory with a 93-91 victory against Xavier last night that stamped the Dukes as a team to be reckoned with in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Duquesne's 40 minutes of chaos created a 19-point lead in the second half that evaporated to nothing and left a crowd of 2,549 -- largest of the season at the Palumbo Center -- limp with emotion and excitement as the clock ticked away the frenzied final seconds. There was a collective sigh of relief when Xavier's Drew Lavender missed a 3-pointer from the corner with six seconds left that was followed by a mad scramble for the loose ball as time ran out.

The Dukes (8-11, 4-4) scored their winning points on Aaron Jackson's lay-in on an inbounds pass from Reggie Jackson with 22 seconds left.

"I came off the screen to the left, with Jason [Duty] as the decoy," said Jackson, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who scored eight points. "They ran with him and I ran right into the paint and got the ball."

Duquesne has defeated Dayton (93-89), Temple (96-92) and Xavier in the same season for the first time and has scored 90 or more points in three consecutive games for the first time since 1988-89.

"Ron Everhart is the coach of the year in the Atlantic 10," Xavier coach Sean Miller said of Everhart, who revamped Duquesne's style and rejuvenated the program.

Robert Mitchell, a 6-foot-6 freshman, scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Dukes, followed by Gary Tucker's 17 points. Scott Grote added 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block and 3 steals to the mix.

All 10 of Duquesne's available players were on the court between 15 and 25 minutes in Everhart's rotating system.

"You stay committed to what you're trying to do and you stick with it," Everhart said. "We probably had our best flat-out effort of the season. We really made some big shots at opportune times. Defensively, we stayed after it, even though we got beat up pretty bad on the boards."

Xavier (15-7, 5-3), the preseason pick to win the conference title, was ranked as high as No. 24 early in the season. Last night, however, the Musketeers committed 21 turnovers to offset a 51-32 rebounding advantage.

Duquesne found itself in unexpected territory as it built its lead to as many as 19 points in the second half. The Dukes hadn't led by more than 10 in this season. Tucker's steal on an inbounds pass and a lay-in made it 69-50, and, moments later, he made another twisting, acrobatic layup in traffic to push the lead to 71-52 with 14:28 to go.

"We deserved to win. We played hard enough to win," said Mitchell, who made 8 of 10 shots from the field in the first half, including 3 of 3 from beyond the arc, for 19 points.

But Duquesne's confidence waned as Xavier rallied to pull even, 91-91, on Derrick Brown's two free throws with 41 seconds left.

"We got careless with the ball and took some shots we shouldn't have," Everhart said. "We really did try to tone it down, but we got a little tentative. We would have liked to have played the clock a little more."

Xavier was led by Justin Doellman's 23 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, Justin Cage's 17 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks and Lavender's 14 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

"We knew they would come out and want to bully us," Mitchell said. "They didn't want to come in here and lose to us."

NOTES -- After Duquesne took a 9-2 lead, Xavier scored the next 14 points in 3:18 to take its biggest lead of the game at 16-9. ... Duquesne's next game is Saturday at St. Bonaventure.