At 6-foot-10 and 265 pounds, Duquesne’s John Hugley IV was making his presence felt, first outside the arc and then down low.

Simply put, “Big John” was having another big game.

“Just grateful that I can put this uniform on and share it with my teammates,” Hugley said Saturday after scoring 25 points and going over 1,000 for his career to help Duquesne hold off Stony Brook, 84-75, at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Hugley scored more than half his career total during a three-year stint at Pitt, where he put up 572 points from 2020-23.

He also played one season each at Oklahoma (201 points) and Xavier (98) before landing this season at Duquesne, where he has scored 143 points to total 1,014 for his career. He is the Dukes’ second-leading scorer (15.9 ppg) and leading rebounder (6.0 rpg) this year.

“I just want to give a special thanks to my teammates and my coaches for believing in me and trusting me and calling plays for me to go score the ball,” said Hugley, who shot 8 for 15 and made 7 of 8 free throws to go with five rebounds and two assists. “I’m just grateful to be here and to be in this position.”

In their previous six outings, Hugley and the Dukes had alternated between victories and defeats, winning three and losing three, including a four-point setback four days earlier to William & Mary in a game that saw Hugley score just two points and go without a field goal.

So naturally, this time Duquesne (6-3) was due for a victory.

Behind Hugley, who scored at least 25 points for the third time this season and 20 in a home game for the fourth time, the Dukes came through by finally beating a team from the Coastal Athletic Association.

“Winning feels great,” said Duquesne’s Jimmie Williams, who added 17 points for his fourth consecutive game of at least 16.

The victory continued an alternating pattern that began Nov. 11 with Duquesne’s fourth consecutive victory to open the season, an 87-81 overtime decision against Queens.

Since then, it’s been a roller-coaster ride for the Dukes, who will set out this week on a two-game trip westward to play Boise State on Wednesday and Nevada on Saturday.

“We took some steps defensively,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said. “Not just in this game, but even in the William & Mary game there were some things that we did, defensively, that even allowed us to position ourselves to be in that game. You take the instances, even from a loss, and you make them lessons. You’ve got to learn from them and deal with them.”

Hugley started against Stony Brook with back-to-back 3-pointers, then took his game inside and punished the Seawolves by consistently getting to the rim.

The sixth-year senior appeared surprised when asked why he hasn’t considered doing it more often.

“I feel like I do a pretty good job getting to the hoop,” Hugley said. “Maybe I do need to sit back and look on some film just to get to attacking the glass more.”

Later on, in a lighter moment, Hugley was challenged to instead consider hoisting more 3-pointers.

“I didn’t want to get too in-the-moment,” he said, smiling.

Those early 3s managed to spread Stony Brook’s defense, giving Hugley a wider lane to the basket.

“I found out the pressure in the paint was a little softer, so that way I was able to get to my finishes around the rim,” he said.

“We need paint touches,” Joyce chimed in, drawing chuckles from reporters.

The victory also improved Duquesne’s record against CAA teams this season to 1-2. In addition to William & Mary, the Dukes also lost to Northeastern on Nov. 22 in the Morgan & Morgan Classic in Akron, Ohio.

Duquesne seized the lead from Stony Brook for good on two free throws by Hugley with 10 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first half, though the Seawolves made things interesting in the second half, outscoring Duquesne, 47-44, after the Dukes led at halftime, 40-28.

Stony Brook made 14 of its first 20 shots after the break.

Erik Pratt and Richard Goods scored 19 points apiece to lead Stony Brook, which was coming off a 71-68 victory at Loyola Marymount in the Sunshine Slam Challenge. Rob Brown III added 12 points for the Seahawks, and Goods finished with 10 rebounds.

Duquesne outrebounded Stony Brook, 41-34.

“We cleaned up possessions by rebounding the ball pretty well, especially in the first half,” Joyce said.

Jakub Necas added 11 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for Duquesne.

Stony Brook (6-3) trailed by just 80-75 with 33 seconds left after falling behind 76-66 at the 3:48 mark on a dunk by Hugley.

But Duquesne closed out the game when Cam Crawford and David Dixon each sank 1 of 2 free throws, and Williams put an exclamation point on the day with a steal and dunk with 10 seconds left.

“There’s always scenarios where you need key stops to win the game,” Joyce said. “There are a couple of losses on our record where we didn’t do that. In this game, we got key stops down the stretch, potential rebounds and then turned it into a free-throw game and made our free throws (19 for 26). Overall, we contested shots. We gave up a little too much in the second half, but that’s a good offensive team. They started to figure some things out.”

Duquesne’s largest first-half lead was 15 points — 37-22 with 4:03 left before intermission on Maximus Edwards’ 3-point shot, his only basket in 14-plus minutes.

Joyce lauded his bench players, such as Edwards, saying, “We need those guys. We don’t get this win with just the output you see from the starting five on the court. That group (off the bench) ballooned the lead in the first half. That gave us some comfort with a bigger lead. We need those contributions.”

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