PHILADELPHIA - Jordan Price scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half as La Salle withstood a furious Duquesne rally to pull out an 88-81 win over the Dukes at Tom Gola Arena.

The Explorers hit 20-of-20 free throws in the second half in holding off the Dukes who cut a 13-point deficit to three with 4:05 left.

Rene Castro led the charge for the Dukes with 19 points - including five 3-pointers - all in the final 8:12 of the game.

Emile Blackman, who went 4-of-7 from 3-point, added 18 for the Dukes who finished with five double-digit scorers.

There were four ties and five lead changes in the first half that ended with the score knotted at 36-36.

Price, who was 1-of-5 from the field at the half, scored eight in the opening minutes of the second half to give La Salle a 53-46 lead with just over 14 minutes left.

The Explorers lead reached 13 when Isiah Deas hit his third 3-pointer of the game to make it 66-53 with 8:32 remaining.

Price, who hit all four of his 3-pointers in the second half, buried one with just over seven minutes remaining to make it 71-59.

DU responded with a 9-0 run consisting of an Isiaha Mike layup, a Castro jumper, a Mike Lewis II jumper and Blackman 3-pointer to make it 71-68.

The Dukes got the ball back on a Lewis II steal, but Blackman couldn't convert with 2:48 left.

The Explorers then got a pair of free throws from Pookie Powell and a big 3-pointer from Price with 2:16 to go to make it an eight-point game.

Duquesne cut it to five on a Castro 3-pointer with 41 seconds left, but La Salle hit four free throws in the final 38 seconds to seal the win.

Mike finished with 14 for Duquesne, while Lewis II and Nakye Sanders added 11 and 10 points respectively.

Mike and Blackman led the Dukes with 7 rebounds each.

Duquesne, which had four more 3-pointers than La Salle, outshot the Explorers 43.7 percent to 42.9 percent.

La Salle, which finished 24-of-25 from the foul line, outscored the Dukes 24-5 from the stripe.

Duquesne returns home for back-to-back games vs. Saint Louis on Wed., Jan. 11 (Facebook Live) and Dayton, Saturday, Jan. 14 at PPG Paints Arena (CBSSN).

NOTES

• Rene Castro scored all of his team-high 19 points in the final 8:12 ... the junior guard went 6-of-10 from the field, including 5-of-7 from the 3-point arc.
• La Salle's 24-of-25 (.960) performance from the line was the best by a DU opponent in Jim Ferry's five seasons at Duquesne.
• Specialty stats were nearly dead even, with Duquesne leading in points in the paint (30-28), points off turnovers (17-16) and bench points (24-22) ... the two were even in second-chance points (18-18) and fast break points (4-4).
• Freshman Mike Lewis II extended his double-digit scoring streak to 10 games with 10 points.
• There were five ties and eight lead changes ... Duquesne's largest lead was nine (20-11) with 10:50 left in the first half ... La Salle's largest lead was +13 (66-53) with 8:13 remaining ... Duquesne led for 16:39 and La Salle led for 18:30 ... the game was tied for 4:51.