STEUBENVILLE - The Franciscan men's basketball team outscored Medaille 46-39 in the second half, but a strong first led the Mavericks to a 91-75 win over FUS Saturday afternoon. 

Senior Christian Duke scored 17 of his game high 29 points in the final 20 minutes but the Barons couldn't close the gap on Medaille. Trailing 52-29 at the half, the Barons went on a 6-2 run to open the second and cut the lead back to 18, 36-54, behind a layup from sophomore Thomas Rush. The Mavericks pushed their lead back to 20 and led by as many as 22 with 13:45 to play before the Barons began chipping away. Sophomore Joseph Rall sandwiched a pair of layups around a Maverick bucket before drawing a foul a sinking a pair of free throws to get the Barons to within 17, 64-47, with 11:04 showing on the clock. After a steal from sophomore Richard Cross, Duke grabbed an offensive board and laid in the second-chance shot to narrow the gap to 15 with 10 minutes to play. 

Medaille scored eight unanswered points to push the lead to 23, 72-49, thanks to a free throw after a foul on a made three but the Barons would not go quietly. Duke kicked off a 9-0 run for FUS to pull within 13, 72-58, with 6:17 to play and a layup from junior Jacob Divens narrowed the score to 76-63 with 4:47 to go. The Mavericks used a 5-0 run to take a 18 point lead once again but once again the Barons hung around and put pressuse on Medaille. 

Franciscan used a 7-4 run over the next minute and a half to pull as close as they would come, 85-73, but Medaille closed out the game on a 6-2 run to seal the 91-75 victory.

The first half saw five lead changes and the score tied four times in the first 10 and a half minutes until Medaille took a 22-19 lead with 9:36 to play. The Mavericks outscored the Barons 30-10 over the final 9:6 to take the 52-29 lead into the locker room. 

The Barons shot 50.0% for the game after shooting 52.9% (18-34) in the second half. Duke led all players with a double-double behind 29 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Daniel McElroy added five blocks while Divens dished out five assists for the game. 

FUS returns to the hardwood next Wednesday as the Barons square off against La Roches in Pittsburgh, Pa. at 6:00 pm.