It’s no secret Duquesne’s road success in Atlantic 10 games this season has helped the Dukes stay in contention for an A-10 Tournament high seed.

They had won five of seven against conference opponents away from UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

With time winding down in the regular season, Duquesne took an opportunity Saturday night to make another statement on the road, this time against No. 23 Saint Louis, the conference’s first-place team.

The Dukes gave it their best shot, but for the second time this season came up short against the Billikens.

Robbie Avila scored 23 points — 21 in the second half — and Saint Louis rebounded from a loss at Dayton — its second setback in three games — to beat Duquesne, 91-76, at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis.

It marked the Billikens’ 21st consecutive victory at home. Saint Louis made 16 of 28 3-point shots.

“The story of tonight’s game is how well they shot the ball from the 3-point line,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III. “They shot it extremely well, and some of those were highly contested 3s. There were some other ones where we feel like we could play some better defense.”

Avila shot 8 for 12, including 5 for 7 from 3-point range, and added seven rebounds and seven assists for Saint Louis (26-3, 14-2), which leads second-place VCU by one game heading into the final week of the regular season.

Duquesne (16-13, 8-8), which lost for the third straight time, fell out of contention for a double-bye in the A-10 Tournament on March 11-15 at PPG Paints Arena.

The Dukes were led by Tarence Guinyard’s 27 points.

Duquesne, which dropped an 81-77 decision to Saint Louis on Jan. 20 at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, came out firing to start the game. The Dukes made four of their first seven 3-pointers and raced to a 20-8 lead.

But they couldn’t sustain their hot pace and settled for a 41-39 halftime lead.

They began to unravel in the second half, falling behind by as many as nine points on several occasions, the last at 76-67 with 6 minutes, 20 seconds left.

Saint Louis outscored Duquesne, 16-4, to start the second half.

But, after nearly wilting, a 7-0 Duquesne run, capped by a Guinyard 3-pointer with 4:49 to go, pulled the Dukes within 76-74 with 4:49 to go.

It was the Dukes’ last gasp before Saint Louis closed out the game on a 15-2 run. The burst was ignited by back-to-back 3-pointers by Trey Green, who finished with 14 points.

“Ultimately, the two big 3s from Green were huge shots to give them some room,” Joyce said. “We weren’t able to match it.

“We played pretty hard. We fought our way back. They’ve bombed teams here. When you get down nine, 10 points here in this arena, those usually wind up as 25-30 point wins for them. I want to applaud my group for the energy, the intensity and how they fought throughout the game.”

Quentin Jones added 17 points, and Paul Otieno chipped in 13 for Saint Louis.

Jimmie Williams added 16 points for Duquesne. David Dixon finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for the Dukes, who play at Rhode Island on Wednesday before closing out the regular season against Richmond on Saturday afternoon at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.