PITTSBURGH - Primo Spears tied the Duquesne freshman scoring record with 34 points, but it was not enough as Duquesne (6-23, 1-16) fell to La Salle (10-18, 5-13), 85-76, on Saturday afternoon at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

The loss was the 16th in a row for the Dukes who cut an 18-point second half deficit to five with four minutes left.

Jack Clark and Josh Nickelberry led La Salle, which shot 60 percent, with 30 and 23 points respectively.

Jackie Johnson III and Kevin Easley Jr. added 15 and 13 points for Duquesne.

Spears' point total tied the DU freshman mark set by Eric Williams Jr. vs. George Mason on Jan. 20, 2018.

La Salle put together an 8-0 run to take a 32-19 lead, before Easley Jr. ended a four-minute drought with a bucket.

The Explorers' lead reached 14 before Johnson III hit a 3-pointer and Spears followed with a three-point play to cut the lead to eight. Spears added another bucket at the horn to make it 39-31 at the half.

La Salle outshot Duquesne 62 percent to 41 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

Johnson III briefly cut it to six on the fourth of his five 3-pointers early in the second half, before La Salle answered with three 3-pointers - two by Nickelberry and one from Clark - in just over one minute to make it 53-38 with 15:49 left.

The La Salle lead reached 18 before Spears cut it to 11 on a corner 3-pointer at the 9:30 mark.

Easley Jr. followed with a foul line jumper to make it 64-55.

Spears, who scored 25 in the second half, converted another conventional three-point play to cut it to five with just over four minutes left.

Duquesne could get no closer than six the rest of the way as Nickelberry and Clark combined for 10 points down the stretch.

Next up for the Dukes is the 2022 Atlantic 10 Championship at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. March 9-13.

Duquesne will be seeded #14 and will open play on Wednesday, Mar. 9 at 3:30 p.m. vs. the to be determined #11 seed (ESPN+).

A complete bracket for the tournament will be released by the A-10 office at the conclusion of Saturday's games.

NOTES

• Spears, who finished with a freshman record-tying 34 points, has now set a career high in each of DU's past two games (he had 25 on Wednesday at George Washington). Eric Williams Jr. set the freshman scoring mark with 34 vs. George Mason on Jan. 20, 2018.
• Jackie Johnson went 5-of-7 from the 3-point arc in scoring 15 points. The five threes were the most by a Duke this season.
• Duquesne shot .640 percent in the second half to finish at .509 for the game. It was the second time DU shot above 50 percent this season (.580 vs. American on Nov. 28 was the other).
•  It was just the second time in 19 games under Keith Dambrot that DU lost when shooting 50 percent or better.
• La Salle's largest lead was 18, the last of which came at 64-46 with 10:42 left ... Duquesne's largest lead was two, the last of which came at 4-2 .... there were three ties and one lead change before Khalil Brantley gave La Salle the lead for good at 14-12 on jumper with 12:31 left in the first half ... La Salle led for 36:21 ... Duquesne led for 0:15.