Mossie Murphy, this one’s for you. After a 47-year wait, the Dukes can go dancing again.

“I’m sure he would be up in the aisle dancing,” former Duquesne great Baron “B.B.” Flenory said of Murphy, the late political consultant from Pittsburgh and Duquesne’s most visible basketball booster back when the program was consistently thriving.

Dae Dae Grant scored 10 points — all in the first half — and Duquesne made six free throws in the final 21 seconds to seize its eighth consecutive victory Sunday in a big way, knocking off defending Atlantic 10 Tournament champion VCU, 57-51, at Barclays Center in New York and earning the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Duquesne (24-11) will head to Omaha, Neb., for a first-round game Thursday as an 11th seed in the East Region against No. 6 seed BYU (23-10) at CHI Health Center.

The Cougars finished tied with No. 16 Kansas for fifth place in the Big 12 with a record of 10-8. They bowed out of the Big 12 Tournament with an 81-67 loss to No. 25 Texas Tech in the quarterfinals but secured an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

ESPN reported the Duquesne-BYU matchup will begin at 12:40 p.m.

“I’ve seen BYU play in the past, but I really didn’t see them play this year,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. “Usually, they’re huge. And then, who do we play? The winner of Illinois/Morehead? None of it really matters. We just have to do what we do. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble refocusing.”

His players said they’ve never lost touch.

“We’ve played high-major teams before. We’ve played against high-major players,” Grant said. “Basketball is basketball. March is March. Just like we said before we were champs here — I mentioned it — anybody can be beaten in March, and it all matters how you’re playing your best basketball at the end of March. So we just continue to have faith and believe in one another.”

On Sunday, the sixth-seeded Dukes overcame a poor shooting performance in the second half, when they made just 5 of 29 attempts and were outscored 29-21.

Duquesne hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since dropping a 73-66 decision to VMI in a first-round game March 12, 1977, in Raleigh, N.C.

But they’re headed back to “The Big Dance” — finally — after inching closer to the program’s record of 26 victories set in 1953-54, when Dambrot’s late father, Sid, played for Duquesne.

“I’m pretty happy for all the Duquesne fans that have suffered through the years,” said Flenory, a member of that 1977 NCAA Tournament team. “But, I’m probably most happy for coach Dambrot. He’s taken a lot of criticism. He came here to take the Dukes to the NCAA Tournament because of his father, and he did it.”

Dambrot is in his final season of an extended seven-year contract at Duquesne, where he has compiled a record of 115-95. He has said he will decide when the season is complete whether to remain as coach of the Dukes.

His father undoubtedly would be thrilled with Duquesne’s lofty accomplishment. So, too, would Murphy, the ringleader of the familiar “shoo-shoo, rah-rah” refrain that became synonymous with Murphy and Duquesne basketball at home games during the twilight of the program’s glory years.

After starting the A-10 schedule with five losses, the Dukes took off, winning 10 of their final 13 league games to end the year 10-8 in the conference.

“I’m happy to be in the tournament, and now we’re going to try to win,” Dambrot said. “That’s the bottom line. It’s not good enough just to be in. You want to try to win. It’s a big deal because it’s important to the school.”

After fifth-seeded VCU (22-13) came back from an 18-point, first-half deficit to close within a point late, Duquesne converted 6 of 8 free throws in the final 21 seconds — four by Jimmy Clark III and two by Fousseyni Drame — to secure the title.

“It was a great feeling knowing it was a former team, and it was the free throws that gave us the edge at the end,” said Clark, whose college playing career began at VCU in 2019-20.

But he was dismissed from the team during the season after encountering some off-the-court trouble and wound up in junior college at Northwest Florida State, where he helped the Seals win an NJCAA national championship in 2022.

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Now, he’s hoping to help Duquesne make an NCAA title run.

“I’m very excited,” Clark said. “This is always a dream to be able to play in March Madness, to be able to watch the Selection Sunday show. It’s definitely a blessing for our team, and we’re ready. We are ready.”

Days after being voted to the All-A-10 second team, Clark and Grant on Sunday were named to the A-10 all-tournament team, with Grant, who scored 27 points Saturday in Duquesne’s 70-60 semifinals victory over St. Bonaventure, receiving the Most Outstanding Player Award.

In the end, Duquesne found just enough offense to hold off the Rams, whom they outrebounded, 41-32, with Drame leading the way with 12.

Jakub Necas’ 3-point shot with 4 minutes, 35 seconds remaining stretched Duquesne’s lead to 49-41, but the Dukes couldn’t shake loose. Zeb Jackson’s long 3-pointer from the right corner kept VCU within 49-46.

Joe Bamisile made two free throws for the Rams to slice the deficit to one with 1:34 to go before Duquesne scored the next six points on a layup by Jake DiMichele and two free throws each by Clark and Drame to go up 55-48.

“I’m super proud of our guys’ resiliency and toughness,” Dambrot said. “We were in so many games, and we had so many disappointments early in the year that we learned how to win, even when things didn’t go very well for us.”

Duquesne was in command for the entire first half, rolling to a 36-22 halftime lead. The Dukes’ biggest advantage — 18 points — came on DiMichele 3-pointer with 3:09 left, making it 34-16.

The second half wasn’t as kind to them. Duquesne struggled to find its range, missing 20 of its first 21 shots.

But the Dukes never lost their lead.

They were ahead by 15 points when play was stopped because some Duquesne confetti colored red, white and blue — intended for the postgame celebration — fell from a section of the rafters onto part of the court, delaying the game for several minutes.

It could have been an omen because Duquesne then went more than 5 minutes without scoring.

That’s when VCU rallied behind Bamisile, who scored 20 points to lead the Rams.

Jackson’s 3-point shot capped a 9-0 run to pull VCU within 38-32. But Clark took a long pass from Kareem Rozier and scored on a reverse layup for Duquesne to end a run of 14 missed shots and give the Dukes a 40-32 lead with 10:56 to go.

Bamisile’s three-point play on a dunk with 14:14 left ignited the Rams’ comeback, which got within 49-48 on a pair of free throws by Bamisile with 1:36 left, capping a 7-0 VCU run.

But DiMichele took a pass from Clark and scored underneath with 1:07 remaining for a 51-48 Duquesne lead, and the Dukes held on to advance to college basketball’s biggest stage for the sixth time in school history.

Duquesne also played twice in national championship games in the 1950s, winning the National Invitation Tournament title in 1955.

Dave Mackall is a TribLive contributing writer.