Duquesne fell into a significant hole midway through the second half and couldn't complete a late comeback Wednesday night, suffering a 76-72 setback at the hands of Saint Joseph's in Atlantic 10 Conference play. 

The Dukes (9-12, 4-4), who have now lost three straight games, went back and forth with the Hawks (13-8, 4-4) to begin the second half before the latter gained separation following a bucket by Xzayvier Brown with 15:13 to go. That kickstarted a 15-5 St. Joe's run over the next seven-plus minutes, a stretch that forced the Dukes to have to play from behind for the remainder of the game. They managed to pull to within four on separate occasions with under 30 seconds to go, but the Hawks' lead was ultimately insurmountable. 

Duquesne shot 44.1% (15 for 34) from the field behind its late second-half surge. The Dukes were successful on 34.4% (11 for 32) of their shot attempts in the first half. St. Joe's, which held a slim 26-24 lead at halftime, struggled behind a 37.5% shooting performance in the first half before shooting 56.5% in the second. They were just 2 for 7 from three-point range down the stretch, but they converted on 24 of their 27 chances from the free-throw line. 

Tre Dinkins III helped lead the charge offensively in the second half, scoring 22 of his season-high 27 points in the second half. Dinkins scored 26 points the last time these teams met on Jan. 8. On this night, Dinkins was 11 for 19 from the field and 5 for 11 from three-point range. He converted on six of his last seven shot attempts and three of his last four attempts from long range. Cam Crawford finished with 10 points before fouling out, while Jahsean Corbett and David Dixon each had nine points. Corbett reached the 1,500-point plateau in the loss.