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Late rally helps Duquesne trip St. Joseph’s, 85-84

The difference in the game came when the Dukes went on an 11-2 run to lead, 82-75.

St. Joseph's forward Charlie Brown Jr. led the Hawks with 28 points.
St. Joseph's forward Charlie Brown Jr. led the Hawks with 28 points.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

St. Joseph’s had a 15-point lead early in the first half on Saturday, but Duquesne rallied late in the second quarter and went on to beat the Hawks, 85-84, on Saturday.

Charlie Brown Jr. scored 28 points for St. Joseph’s, and Lamarr Kimble and Jared Bynum scored 14 points each. Chris Clover added 12.

The difference in the game came when the Dukes (11-5, 2-1 Atlantic 10) went on an 11-2 run to lead, 82-75, on Michael Hughes’ pair of free throws with 44 seconds left in the game.

The Hawks (7-9, 0-4) made three three-pointers in the final 37 seconds, but Duquesne made 3 of 6 free throws, which was enough to hand St. Joseph’s its fourth straight loss.

St. Joseph’s redshirt junior Pierfrancesco Oliva left the game after suffering a serious knee injury midway through the first half.

The Hawks opened the game with a 22-7 lead. But the Dukes had a 17-2 run to erase the deficit and take the lead before halftime.

“We had a nice offensive [first] half, but the turnovers negated a lot of the good that we did,” Hawks coach Phil Martelli said. “And it was a tale of two halves. We gave up three foul shots in the first half and 19 in the second. We had a lot of trouble guarding the low post.”

St. Joseph’s (7-9 overall; 0-4 Atlantic 10) was also victimized by a Duquesne scoring run with about four minutes left in the game. With the game tied, 73-73, the Dukes went on a 9-2 run to take an 82-75 lead.

The Hawks pulled to within 83-81 on a three-pointer by Clover with 23 seconds to play and a free throw by Eric Williams Jr. Bynum closed the Hawks’ scoring on a three-pointer at the buzzer.

“It was certainly not a lack of effort,” Martelli said. “It was just an unfortunate result. We came out of the first half, and two of our starters had not scored. So everybody's got to do more.”

St. Joseph’s returns home from the two-game road swing to host Davidson on Tuesday night for a nationally-televised game (ESPNU) at 9 p.m.