The Saint Louis University men’s basketball hosted the Duquesne Dukes on Jan. 30. Senior guard Ash Yacoubou was on fire from behind arc, hitting three back-to-back treys to give the Billikens a 9-0 lead.
The Dukes responded with a 7-0 run, which Yacoubou put an end to with another three. The Billikens gained a twelve point advantage with 10:42 left in the half as a result of baskets by freshman guard Jermaine Bishop, sophomore guard Miles Reynolds and junior forward Reggie Agbeko.
The Billiken offense hit a detrimental drought in the final six minutes, which allowed Duquesne to gain a 30-27 lead at halftime on account of a late 12-0 spurt.
Junior guard Aaron Hines brought the Billikens within one by drilling a three early in the second half. The Dukes continued to dominate the court, extending their lead to 15 with just under five minutes left in the game, until the Billikens put together a 10-0 streak.
Junior guard Mike Crawford hit a layup to cut the Billiken deficit to four with less than a minute to go, but the Dukes kept their lead by hitting their free throws. SLU fell to Duquesne 78-67 and drop to 3-6 in the A-10 conference and 8-13 overall.
Yacoubou led the SLU offense with 18 points and eight rebounds. Crawford scored all 14 of his points in the second half, hitting 5-of-10 field goal attempts. As a team, the Billikens only shot 37.5 percent from the floor. SLU’s largest lead was 12 with 10:42 left in the first half, and Duquesne had their largest lead of 15 points with 4:41 left in the game.
The Billikens will have a short break before traveling to New York to play St. Bonaventure on Feb. 7.