No. 23 Saint Louis blows past Duquesne to avoid 2nd straight defeat
Robbie Avila had 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists on Saturday night to help No. 23 Saint Louis stave off visiting Duquesne for a 91-76 victory in Atlantic 10 Conference play.
Quentin Jones added 17 points and Trey Green scored 14 for Saint Louis (26-3, 14-2 A-10), which had dropped two of its previous three games. The Billikens, who trailed by 12 points early in the first half, made 16 of their 28 3-point attempts (57.1%). Paul Otieno scored 13 points off the bench.
Tarence Guinyard led Duquesne (16-13, 8-8) with 27 points, followed by Jimmie Williams' 16 and David Dixon's 12.
Trailing by two at halftime, Saint Louis opened the second half on a 15-4 run, with Avila's seven straight points giving the Billikens a 54-45 edge.
Otieno's layup with 10:59 left pushed the lead to 65-56. Guinyard's free throw trimmed the margin to five with 8:05 remaining.
Williams and Avila traded 3-pointers, as the Billikens grabbed a nine-point edge with 6:20 remaining. From there, Dixon's free throws followed by five straight points from Guinyard trimmed Saint Louis' lead to 76-74.
Green then made back-to-back triples to build the cushion back to eight before drilling two free throws to give the Billikens an 84-74 advantage with 2:15 left. Otieno's jumper then sealed Saint Louis' much-needed win.
Guinyard and Williams made consecutive 3-pointers before Jakub Necas' dunk put the Dukes ahead 20-8 with 15:18 left in the first half. Saint Louis answered with five straight points, as Green's three-point play pulled the Billikens within seven.
Duquesne went five-plus minutes without a made field goal before Alex Williams' triple gave the visitors a 26-20 edge with 10:06 remaining.
Ishan Sharma's three with 7:13 left gave Saint Louis its first lead at 28-26.
Later in the opening half, Green connected on the Billikens' seventh triple to trim the deficit to a point. Dixon's layup and John Hugley IV's three-point play then gave the Dukes a 40-34 lead.
Guinyard had 14 points in the first half for Duquesne, which led 41-39 at the midway point.