PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Franciscan men's basketball team's late second half surge was not enough as La Roche hung on for a 82-77 win Wednesday night in AMCC action.

With 16:46 to play in the second, senior Christian Duke sparked the Baron offense with a three-pointer to tie the game, 47-47. Zach Gould answered for the Red Hawks with a three of his own to give the lead back to La Roche. Junior Jacob Divens cut the lead back to two, 52-50, with 14:55 to play. La Roche scored the game's next five points but the Barons hung close as Divens completed a successful trip to the free throw line to keep FUS within three, 55-52, with 14:04 to go.  

La Roche used a 6-2 run over the next two and half minutes to push its lead back to seven, 61-54,  with 11:37 to play. Franciscan called a 30-second timeout and Duke completed a traditional three-point play to cut the lead back to four, 61-57, with 10:51 to play. The two teams traded the next four layups before Duke hit a free throw to get the Barons within three, 65-62.

With 6:42 to go in regulation, Andy Abreu made a layup to give the Red Hawks their largest lead of the second half. After a pair of free throws from sophomore Keoni Sablan made it a three-point game once again, Duke made a layup to cut the lead to one, 74-73 with just over four minutes to play.

With 2:33 showing, Duke grabbed a defensive rebound and after a missed layup by sophomore Nate Hober, Duke pulled down the offensive board to keep the possession with the Barons. Sophomore Richard Cross passed the ball back to Hober who hit a layup to give FUS its first lead in the second half, 75-74. Ray Quan Phifer hit both of his free throws to give the lead back to the hosts, 76-75 with just over two minutes to play.

Phifer and Sablan traded successful trips to the free throw line, Torin Smith hit the back end of a trip to the line to push the Red Hawk lead back to two points, 79-77 with 26 seconds to play. The Red Hawks hit the final three free throws of the game to hang on for the 82-77 win.

The Red Hawks built a 10-2 lead over the first five minutes of the game before the Barons chipped away to cut the lead back to two, 12-10, thanks to a Cross layup with 11:33 to play in the first. Cross once again kept the Barons close as he converted a layup with 7:40 to play to slash the gap to one, 19-18, in favor of La Roche.

Smith made a three with 2:53 to play to end the Red Hawk lead to 11, 38-27. The Barons stayed close as Duke converted a three-point play to close the gap back to single digits, 41-32, with 1:42 to go. Sophomore Joseph Rall made a layup and Duke made a free throw in the final minute of the half to cut the Red Hawk lead to 41-35 going into halftime.

Duke led all players with 23 points and 15 rebounds while Sablan chipped in 16 points for the Barons. FUS shot 46% (29-63) from the field and was 15-20 from the free throw line.

The Barons wrap up their season on Saturday as they host D'Youville on Saturday at 1:00 pm for Senior Day.