Saint Joseph's fell to Duquesne, 78-70, in the final regular-season game at Hagan Arena, ruining the Hawks' "Senior Day" and Isaiah Miles scoring his 1,000th-career point.
Miles had 21 points and 12 rebounds and classmate Aaron Brown scored 20 in their final game in Hagan Arena. DeAndre' Bembry had 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists and freshman Lamarr Kimble added 10 points for Saint Joseph's (24-7; 13-5 A-10), which has lost two in a row.
Miles scored the 1000th point of his career with 11:30 to play to become the 53rd player in school history to reach the plateau, an impressive feat considering he had 444 points entering this year.
Micah Mason scored a game-high 28 points to lead Duquesne. Derrick Colter added 18 points. eight rebounds and 11 assists for Duquesne (16-15; 6-12), while L.G. Gill had 14 points and 14 rebounds as the Dukes shot 50 percent from the field in the game.
Saint Joseph's now awaits the conclusion of Atlantic 10 play later tonight for the determination of its opponent and seeding for the A-10 Championship. The Hawks will open play in the quarterfinals on Friday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as either the third or fourth seed.
Holding the lead since the midway through the first half, Duquesne took its biggest margin of the game, 54-45, on a layup by Derick Colter at 14:54. The Hawks scored seven straight to pull within 54-52, but L.G. Gill had a dunk to give the Dukes a 56-52 cushion.
Duquesne led the entire second half, with Saint Joseph's only able to force one tie, 56-56, on Miles' milestone point at 11:34.
Saint Joseph's came within 63-62 at 6:31, but Mason hit one of his five three-pointers to give Duquesne a 66-62 lead. Miles followed with a jumper but Mason again answered with a layup to push the visitors' lead to 68-64 at 4:35.
With Saint Joseph's trailing, 73-70, after a basket by Bembry, Mason provided the final dagger for the Hawks with his final three-pointer to give Duquesne a 76-70 lead with 1:08 to play.
SJU's biggest lead was six points in the opening minutes of the game. Miles scored nine points in the first eight minutes of the game as the Hawks held a 19-14 lead, but was then called for his second foul and spent the rest of the half on the bench.
Duquesne tied the game at 19-19, and then two more times, before going on a 7-0 run to take a 33-26 lead with under seven minutes to play. The Dukes then stretched it to 37-28 on a layup by Mason. The teams went scoreless for four minutes until Kimble hit a three-pointer and Brown followed with a layup to cut the Hawks' deficit to 37-36. Mason connected on a three pointer to give the Dukes a 40-36 halftime lead as they shot 50 percent from the field in the half and 43 percent from three-point range, making 6-of-14.
"Obviously the zone had an impact with Isaiah out of the game, so it was a smart move by them. We did review all of our zone concepts yesterday thinking we would see some, because out there last year, they beat us playing zone. So we need to do a much better job with our zone offense. But even that, we were 16-for-36 on two's," said Hawk coach Phil Martelli, who was denied his 400th career win. "They moved the ball and put the ball where they wanted and shot comfortably. Also, loose ball recovery. A lot of balls were broken loose and we didn't come up with them. I'm disappointed to have lost two in a row. We will take a couple days off and re-calibrate."
"We are heading into the tournament with two straight losses, and that's all we know. We will know after the results of tonight's game whether we play in the afternoon or evening on Friday in Brooklyn. We'll take a couple of days off and start practice on Tuesday."
Other Hawks honored on "Senior Day" were student assistant Kyle Molock and injured player Skylar Scrivano.
