GREENSBURG, Pa.  – Senior Christian Duke scored a career-best 32 points as the Franciscan men's basketball team came down to the wire with Pitt.-Greensburg but fell to the Bobcats 108-97 at Seton Hill College, Wednesday night.

After a hotly contested first half that ended with the Barons up one, 46-45, the two teams went basket for basket over the first eight minutes of the second as the lead changed hands five times and the score was tied twice. With 7:29 to play and the Barons up 73-72 thanks to a jumper from junior Jacob Divens, Marcus Thomas made a layup after Matt Darby grabbed an offensive board to give UPG a 74-73 lead. The Bobcats scored the game's next three points to take a four-point lead, 77-73. After a free throw and a three-pointer by Divens, the Barons cut the lead back to three, 80-77, with 5:48 to go. The Bobcats used a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to push their lead to 10 and take control of the game. Divens hit a three to cut the lead back to seven and a pair of free throws from Duke kept the Barons close. Darby and Thomas hit back to back layups to take an 11—point lead with just 2:28 to play.

Duke forced a turnover and made a layup with 1:57 to play to pull the Barons to within nine, 93-84. Duke followed up a Jerell Figueroa three pointer with a layup to keep the Bobcats within 10 with just over a minute to play. Up by just 10 with 51 seconds to play, the Bobcats made all six of their last free throws and Rocco Contristano made a layup to secure the win. Sophomore Daniel McElroy made the final layup of the game as time expired off a pass from Jacob Divens.

The Bobcats opened the game on a 13-6 run over the first 4:21 of action but the Barons clawed their way back and tied the game at 13-13 behind a layup from McElroy. Duke hit the backend of a trip to the free throw line to give FUS its first lead of the game, 14-13. Figueroa hit a three to put the Bobcats back on top before the two teams traded layups and Duke made a layup to tie the game at 18-18. Figueroa and Duke traded threes and sophomore Joseph Rall put the Barons back up 23-21 with 10:48 to play.

Sophomore Keoni Sablan kicked off a 12-4 run for the Barons to give FUS a 35-25 lead with 6:43 to play. Sophomore Richard Cross hit a three-pointer to push the Baron lead to 40-28 before the Bobcats scored the next six points to cut the lead back to six, 40-34 with 4:44 to play in the opening half. Down 46-39 thanks to a Divens layup, the Bobcats went out a 6-0 run to close out the first and FUS took the 46-45 lead into the lockerroom.

Duke scored his career best 32 points behind 13-19 shooting. The senior also led the team with 12 rebounds while Divens handed out 10 assists. Sablan posted 22 points and added a pair of steals for the Barons.

As a team, the Barons had their best shooting game of the season as they shot 55.7% from the field (39-70) and were 7-21 from beyond the three point arc.

The Barons kick off a three-game home stand on Saturday as they host Penn St.-Behrend at 2 p.m.