St. Joe’s vs. Xavier LIVE GAME BLOG

St. Joe’s enters tonight’s game riding a winning streak.  While it is only two games long, that phrase can finally be uttered for the first time in the year 2011.  The Hawks have gotten great backcourt play in the last two games–against UMass and at Fordham– in order to give them their first two Atlantic 10 wins.

The story of late has been the play of freshman Langston Galloway.  The guard has scored 25 points in each of the last two games and has been named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week in each of the last two weeks.  He led the Hawks in leading-scorer Carl Jones’ absence in a 67-64 win over UMass that snapped the Hawks’ nine-game losing streak.

He led three Hawk guards in double figures with another 25-point performance on Sunday in St. Joe’s comeback win over Fordham.  Carl Jones (15 points) and Charoy Bentley (14 points) also reached double figures for the Hawks.

Tonight’s opponent is the 18-6 Xavier Musketeers.  Xavier is led in scoring by their two guards, Tu Holloway (20.7 points per game) and Mark Lyons (13.5 points per game).  They are joined in double figures by the frontcourt tandem of Kenny Frease (11.8 ppg, 8.9 rpg) and Jamel McLean (11.4 ppg, 8.9 rpg).

St. Joe’s-Villanova LIVE BLOG

8:00: It’s a Friday night, no class in the morning…

While that may be true, J Smith, this Friday also happens to be another occurrence of the Holy War, the annual meeting of St. Joe’s and Villanova.

This year, the Hawks (3-3) come stumbling into this meeting after a 12-point loss to Drexel, and face by far the toughest opponent of the season to this point in Villanova.

The Wildcats (5-1) suffered their first loss of the season last week against a tough Tennessee squad and will be looking to rebound tonight against their main Big 5 rival. Jay Wright’s team is led by Corey Fisher, who has done a solid job to this point replacing the production and leadership of graduated senior Scottie Reynolds.

Captain’s Call: News and Notes Around Baseball

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The loss of Dan Haren could create problems for the D-Backs in future seasons.

This is the first edition of the Captain’s call. The baseball season has now reached the dog days of August. The trade deadline has come and gone and now we are into the final two month stretch of the regular season. Since I missed the trade deadline, I want to talk about the winners and losers of the trade deadline and the biggest surprises and disappointments of the season thus far, along with some news and notes for the Yankees.

First, we begin with the trade deadline. I ask, is there anything more exciting than the July 31 trade deadline, waiting for each move by the teams trying to improve this year for a pennant race, or teams trying to get better for the future? As with every deadline, there are winners and losers. Teams who acquire exactly what they needed to strengthen their team, or the teams who gave up too much or got too little. This year’s deadline was no different. There were clear winners and losers this year.

Left Field Lite: An Alternative to the Big Ballpark (Part 1)

A view of one side of the home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks

Well folks, being a college student I must admit that as much as I love the Phillies, going to the ballpark can be downright expensive. For those who lack their own automobile, an R5 trip and subway ride can cost over $10, parking (for those who have cars) is up to $15, tickets in the cheapest seats can cost up to $19 (with processing fees), hot dogs are $3.50 a piece, and for those of us over 21, beer comes in at $7.25 a bottle. As much fun as major league baseball is to watch in person, for those of us in school it can be a serious strain on the wallet.

That is where this post comes in. This week, I was inspired to find every minor league and independent league ballpark within an hour (or so) of Philadelphia when my dad and I were looking for something to do this weekend. After a successful trip tonight to Delaware, I now begin the first of what I hope will be many posts presenting you, the readers, with some alternatives to the big ballpark that still provide major league entertainment.

Left Field Lite: A Fan’s Perspective of Interleague Play

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Rays vs. Rockies? An age old rivalry that dates back to the… Late 1990s.

Well folks, it begins again: as teams head towards the half-way mark in the season, the not-so-traditional rivalries of interleague play begin anew in 2010. Along with the thrilling matchups of Marlins-White Sox, Rockies-Royals, and Cardinals-Angels, we also get the marquee games such as Yankees-Mets, Phillies-Red Sox,  and the Giants-A’s, all coming soon to a FOX Saturday broadcast near you.

Martelli weighs in on transfers

The picture of next year’s Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team is becoming more clear as the team approaches summer, with just two players who haven’t fully committed their futures to the school.

According to head coach Phil Martelli, there are just two players left who in his words “need to have discussions with their families,” but that’s as far along as they are in the process.

Right now, there are six returning letterwinners who are “solid” in their intentions to return next year, including all three members of the freshman class. Speculation had been rife that there could be departures from that group, most notably by Carl Jones, but all three of the youngest Hawks will be staying put.

“They’re not in the mix of going home to talk to everybody [about their future],” Martelli said of his freshman class. “They’re going to go home to tell everybody they have to be back on May 17 for summer school.”

Hawks struggle, eventually overcome St. Bonaventure

It wasn’t for the faint of heart today at the Hagan Arena, but when it refs’ whistles finally stopped, St. Joe’s emerged with a 78-71 win over St. Bonaventure.

Darrin Govens led the Hawks with 22 points, while Idris Hilliard chipped in 19 and Garrett Williamson had 16. Carl Jones also added nine off the bench.

“I thought we did a really nice job defensively understanding where they were coming from, and trying to attack,” said St. Joe’s head coach Phil Martelli.

Jonathan Hall led the Bonnies with a game-high 24 points and also added 11 rebounds. Andrew Nicholson chipped in 19 points and nine boards, while Chris Matthews scored 10 points. Both Nicholson and Matthews, along with fellow starter Ogo Adegboye, fouled out.

It was a ragged and choppy game on both sides with mistakes abound. The Bonnies finished with 23 turnovers and just nine assists, while the Hawks coughed it up 17 times with just eight helpers. The teams combined for 55 personal fouls, 33 of which were committed by the Bonnies, leading to four players fouling out. But the Hawks often failed to capitalize, shooting a dreadful 9-19 (47.4 percent) from the line in the first half, and just 29-45 (64.4 percent) for the game.

Hawk women drop thriller to Temple, 58-56

The Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball team faced off against Atlantic 10 rival Temple tonight at the Hagan Arena. Despite their best efforts at a late comeback, however, the Hawks found that they once again could not beat Temple, losing on a last-second shot by a score of 58-56.

In the first half, Temple (16-6, 5-2 A-10) opened up an early lead. What didn’t help the Hawks (11-11, 4-3 A-10) out was that they could not seem to handle the basketball tonight, missing passes and experiencing problems simply dribbling the ball. What also hurt the Hawks was that reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Brittany Ford, ’10, tweaked something in her leg and was sidelined for most of the first half. When combined with the fact that the Hawks were out-rebounded 19-12, 8-1 in offensive rebounds, the Hawks found themselves going into halftime trailing 32-25.

Welcome to The Hawk Sports blog

Welcome to The Hawk’s news and commentary blog!

We are the student newspaper at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. This blog was created as a way for editors, writers, and photographers from The Hawk staff and the St. Joe’s community to continue the conversation beyond our weekly printed edition. This blog gives us the opportunity to voice our opinions and provide unique insight on a variety of topics throughout the sporting world, and allow us to give more in-depth coverage to the sports goings-on Hawk Hill.

If you’re a student at St. Joe’s and you’re interested in adding to the discussion, please contact our staff at thehawk@sju.edu.  We’d love to hear your voice!