PITTSBURGH — Rhode Island found the perfect way to counter Duquesne's fast-breaking, full-throttle system that had caused an upheaval at the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference standings.

Namely, run faster, shoot better and don't get caught in many traps.

Joe Mbang came off the bench to score 19 of his 22 points before halftime and hot-shooting Rhode Island halted Duquesne's longest conference winning streak in 26 years by outrunning the Dukes in a 111-87 victory Sunday.

Mbang, a backup who had scored in single digits in four of his previous five games, was 5-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line in the first half and finished 6-of-9 as the Rams ended Duquesne's five-game winning streak. The Dukes (10-12, 6-4 in Atlantic 10) haven't won six consecutive games overall since the 1980-81 season, also the last time they had won five in a row in the conference.

"They played our game better than we did," the Dukes' Aaron Jackson said. "They were more athletic than us and we were a little sluggish."

The Rams (15-10, 8-3) shot 60.5 percent (46 of 76), a major improvement from their 26.6 percent shooting (17 of 64) in a 77-55 loss to Massachusetts on Thursday that temporarily dislodged them from first place in the Atlantic 10. Rhode Island moved back into a first-place tie with Xavier (18-7, 8-3) as Massachusetts (17-7, 7-3) lost to Temple 98-89 on Sunday.

Will Daniels led the Rams' five double-figure scorers with 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Jimmy Baron, the son of the Rams' coach, added 18 points.

Duquesne, attempting to get to .500 this late in a season for the first time since 1993-94, had won five of six and its last five since switching to a fast-breaking, full court-pressure style that keyed upsets of teams such as Xavier and Dayton. The Dukes scored 222 points in winning their previous two games at St. Bonaventure and La Salle.

"They've been very aggressive, so we wanted to be more aggressive," Rams coach Jim Baron said. "They're very scrappy, but when you play that style you're going to leave people open and we made some shots."

Duquesne was picked by conference coaches to finish 13th in the 14-team league after having five players shot in September. But a victory would have tied the Dukes with Rhode Island in the conference standings and moved them to within a game of the lead.