St. Joe’s-La Salle LIVE game blog

5:52- And there he is!! Martelli calls time with 57.6 and inserts Brown for O’Brien, much to the delight of his sizable cheering section in the crowd. He manages a rebound, but misses the put back before Martelli calls timeout to get his two senior starters out for a standing ovation. The Hawks run out the clock, the ball in Brown’s hands, with a 74-59 win and a berth in the A-10 Tournament. Postgame comments momentarily.

5:50- Jones does it again with a stop-and-go move that gives him a lane to the hoop to stretch the lead to 16. Williams answers with a bucket, but Govens gets hacked by Mekongo, his fifth foul, and makes one of two to restore a 15-point spread. I hear chants of “WE WANT C.J.”!

5:49- La Salle commits its 12th turnover of the night as Giannini turns to his assistants and claps in resignation. Murray’s three-point attempt doesn’t help matters, and sends the normally boisterous coach to take a seat for one of the first instances all night.

5:46- Williamson hits two free throws out of the break, and Grant nearly strips Jones after Mekongo misses a three. But Jones instead heads to the line, and hits both to stretch the lead to 14, the biggest margin of the day, 71-57.

5:43-  JONES TO THE BUCKET! He hits a lay-in driving right to left, up and under a defender to move the margin to 10 at 67-57 with 4:09 to play. As Bill Raftery would say, “a little early onions from the youngster!”

He’s got 12 off the bench, one of four Hawks in double-figures today. The score stays that way into the final media timeout with 3:39 to play.

Also, in Amherst, the Rams hold a slim 50-47 lead. And the Explorers’ postseason hopes.

For more play by play, click here…

St. Joe’s-St. Louis LIVE game blog

10:00- The Billikens have been anything but a good luck charm for St. Joe’s, who dropped their fourth straight game against St. Louis, 56-52.

St. Louis held the Hawks to just 20 points in the second half and under 30 percent shooting to seal the win at the Hagan Arena.

“We’re the youngest team in America, so the kids did a great job with that,” said St. Louis head coach Rick Majerus, who’s team has been in Philadelphia since last Thursday, and may not leave town until at least Friday due to the inclement weather. “We did a lot better the second half and really manned up. I thought our defense was good.”

Cody Ellis led the Bills with 13 points, including three three-pointers. Christian Salecich had 11 points, nine of which came in the first half, while Kwamain Mitchell and Willie Reed chipped in nine and seven, respectively. It’s the Billikens’ second straight win in Philadelphia after they took care of business at La Salle over the weekend.

Garrett Williamson led the way for St. Joe’s with 12 points. Todd O’Brien recorded his second career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds despite foul trouble throughout, and Idris Hilliard was also in double-figures with 10, all in the first half. Darrin Govens added eight points and four assists on an atrocious 3-13 shooting and 1-5 from three.

The St. Joe’s offense faltered for much of the game, including four missed lay-ups in the first that could have added to their halftime cushion, and couldn’t respond to St. Louis’ best punch.

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.

St. Joe’s-Richmond live blog

8:51- Geriot attempts to draw a charge on Govens (he has taken 17 already this year; I just had to get that stat in somewhere), and sends him to the line for one of two with 13.7 left. The Hawks don’t foul on the other end, and the Spiders leave the Hagan Arena with a 68-58 win. Post game wrap in just a bit…

8:49- Anderson converts one from the line as Irwin fumbles a pass out of bounds for the symbolism play of the night, and Hilliard sends Smith to the line on the other end with 18.6 left.

8:48- Crosgile makes two of three, but it’s window-dressing at this point as the Hawks still trail 66-57 with under 40 ticks left.

8:46- Govens gives the ball away again in something that was close enough to the rim that we’ll call it an airball instead of a turnover (looked more like a dry heave with a basketball), and Butler hits a jumper after milking the shot clock all the way down. Bulter fouls Crosgile behind the arc on the other end for his fifth foul, but he departs with 15 points (the same total as in ’08).

8:45- Bulter turns it over, but Govens returns the favor for the 258th time tonight, and Anderson hits a jumper in transition to quiet the Hawks for the time being and send a few of the crimson and gray clad faithful towards the exit. Richmond is up nine with 1:40 to play.

8:43- Williamson earns a trip to the line, but can only convert one of two. Lead’s down to seven.

St. Joe’s-Dayton men’s basketball live game blog

10:00- I’ll leave you with this final, parting thought: there is now way I would take credit for calling this victory, as my earlier score prediction testifies. But I did say this in my blog on the Towson game Monday night:

No one expected this team to beat URI at the Ryan Center, but none of the other games are out of the realm of possibility. A win over Dayton would take a gargantuan effort, but the team that played against Villanova could get it done.

This team put forth one hell of an effort tonight, and they won because they wanted it more. They won a lot of hustle plays that won’t show up in the box score, and used that desire to overcome a team that was clearly superior in terms of skill and athleticism. For all the other things this mediocre team has done wrong this season, they deserve all the credit in the world for tonight’s effort.

That’s all for this evening, one that will go down in the St. Joe’s history books. Goodnight everybody!!

For full game story, click here…

St. Joe’s-Towson men’s basketball live game blog

9:50- That’s it for tonight, as the Hawks escape the Hagan Arena with a hard-fought win. Join us on Saturday night at 6 p.m. from right here with all the action as the Hawks take on conference foe Dayton. Goodnight everybody!!

9:45- You’d hope it would be more comfortable for the Hawks, but in the end they were able to escape with a win tonight over Towson thanks to a strong second half. They outscored the Tigers 41-28 in the second stanza to reverse a six-point halftime deficit. The shooting effort was much better from St. Joe’s, who went 10-23 (43.5 percent) from the field, and five of 10 from three-point land. They also hit their free throws down the stretch, converting on 16 of their 19 trips to the charity stripe in the second half.

Idris Hilliard led the way for the Hawks with 20 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Justin Crosgile chipped in 13, the second straight game he has hit three threes, while Garrett Williamson, who played all 40 minutes, joined them in double-figures with 12. Darrin Govens managed nine points to go along with six assists despite a woeful shooting night (3-15 from the field, 2-10 from three), and Carl Jones had eight.

Todd O’Brien led the way on the boards, with 11 rebounds for a St. Joe’s team that held a 19-14 edge on the glass in the second half. St. Joe’s also committed a season-low tying eight turnovers.

“The players deserved to have something good happen to them because they really did a terrific job yesterday,” said Martelli, whose team held up nicely after a long Sunday that started at 4 a.m. when they arrived back from Olean and continued until past 11 p.m. thanks to academic meetings, video study, and practice. ” They needed something good to happen. When the ball didn’t drop in the first half, we sagged.”

The Hawks also stepped up the defensive effort after halftime, limiting the Tigers to just seven made field goals on 26 attempts (26.9 percent). They held Josh Thornton in check, who had just seven points in the second on 2-10 shooting and 1-6 from behind the arc. He finished with 23, while Jarrel Smith ended up with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. The Towson bench accounted for 44 of their 57 points, and no one other than Smith and Thornton topped four points on the day. Robert Nwankwo had 14 rebounds in the losing effort, while leading scorer Calvin Lee was held to just three points (1-7 shooting) and no rebounds in 28 minutes.

Martelli credits Prescott for a lot of that defense, as he helped quiet Thornton’s first half onslaught. But it was the offensive adjustment that also helped turn the tide. The Hawks had open looks in the first and struggled to connect, but four quick threes to open the second half created some gaps in the Towson zone defense, and with a little patience, gave Hilliard the room he needed to operate.

“It wasn’t really a change, but in the first it just felt like we were passing around the zone too much and not attacking it, so we came in at halftime said we had to attack the zone more, and we did that,” said Hilliard. “Once a couple guys started hitting threes, I caught the ball a couple times and was surprised I was so wide open.”

“I was pleased with the patience that we showed,” Martelli said. “We’re a team that wants to play obviously quicker, and I had a fear when we came in that with all that matchup that they do that we would just rely on jumper, jumper, jumper. In the second half, we made a concerted effort to put the ball in the lane. Idris had some good finishes in the bucket area.”

SJU vs. VILLANOVA Live Doubleheader: UPDATED

1:03- Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed our live look at the St. Joe’s-Villanova historic doubleheader day. It’s taken seven and a half hours, two train rides, a cab fare, four press passes, a bunch of running, lots of bad jokes, almost 6,000 words, two St. Joe’s losses, and a chunk of two writers’ sanity. That’s all we’ve got for tonight.

Thanks for reading, and good night.

12:15- Before we leave the Palestra, something has to be said about the effort of the Saint Joseph’s men’s team tonight. There was a clear gulf in talent between the two squads that proved irreconcilable, but the team that was out there tonight certainly wasn’t lacking for effort. It’s hard to believe that team that took the number three team in the nation to task for portions of the game tonight is the same team that couldn’t get past DePaul, Cornell, or Rider. If they can bring the same effort with them to Minnesota, they can fly back halfway across the country with a quality win in the bags. It may be too much to ask for this to be a turning point of the season, though rivalry games as hard-fought as this one often can be, but the desire of this team, at least tonight, isn’t something to be questioned.

12:05- A little reaction from both coaches:

Phil Martelli:

“The goal here was to be better than we were yesterday. We had 2 good days of practice, probably the best two consecutive days all year. We didn’t lose four in a row in one day; we got there collectively and daily. This was about this day and bout playing better basketball, and I think we were able to accomplish this.

“The worse compliment you can be paid, when they’re walking down that line shaking hands, is to say you played hard, because that’s bulls—t. It means you weren’t good enough. You play to win, and we didn’t win, so we came up short.

“I was pleased with out response. Against Purdue we crumbled. When they punched us in the chest in the second half, we absolutely cracked. Against Cornell, we cracked. It never really got uncomfortable for them, but we didn’t crack.

“In some ways, it was like a bout. They took a swing, we took a swing, then they took a swing. Were walking out of here scoring 89 points, and I’m saying we were working up hill the entire second half. We came here to win, and we played for 40 minutes.

“My fear was that if we had stopped, what would have happened is that this is a tremendous defensive team. If we had stopped and played possession basketball, they would have pushed up on us and made it physically difficult to make the next pass and the next pass. They’re remarkably balanced. They have a way about them offensively that is very fluid, and a way about them defensively that is very tough.

“I play to win basketball games, and this stinks. Tonight and for basically the last month. But for these kids, I want memories they can take with them. Not all losses are losing experiences, and not all wins are winning experiences; and this wasn’t a losing experience.”

Jay Wright:

“I don’t have anything else to say about these games. You can never predict what is going to happen and just have to tough it out. You never now what’s going to happen. St Joe’s has such passionate fans.

“Their team played great, and I’m proud of our guys. It’s a tough gritty Big 5 win.

“That’s the type of ft shooing team I want them to be; that’s what I mean by gutty.

[On Martelli’s assertion that they were never uncomfortable] “Yeah, yeah. The whole game. I don’t know if they [the players] were. They might not have because they might not know the history, but I’ve seen the history. We knew coming in, with all the young guards who are going to be great one day, one of them is going to go off and I don’t know which one. That’s what I was afraid of. Was it going to be two of them?

[On Taylor King] “Nothing is going on in that mind when he shoots the ball. He just shoots it anytime anywhere. That is the beauty of him.”

11:55- 22 points for Scottie Reynolds and 20 off the bench from Taylor King, including four threes in the second half, led the Cats over the Hawks tonight. Pena chipped in 15, along with 13 from Fisher, nine off the bench from Wyans, and eight from Cheek. The story down the stretch for Nova was from the free-throw line, as they finished 35 of 40, including a streak of 28 straight in the second half. The shot 46.8 percent from the field (46.6 percent) and eight of 19 from three. They held the edge on the boards, led by nine from King.

The Hawks were led by 22 points from Hilliard in a stellar effort (5-5 from the field, 12-13 from the line) along with a team high seven boards. Govens had 19 points on 7-13, 3-7. Jones and Crosgile had 16 and 12, respectively, but combined for six turnovers. Williamson added 13 points and seven assists.

The Hawks got dominated on the boards to the tune of 42-31, and each team had 16 turnovers. St. Joe’s shot 25-58 (43.1 percent) from the field and 10-26 (38.5 percent) from three. They missed nine free throws though, led by a six of 10 performance by Williamson, which could have kept the game closer down the stretch.

11:32- While we wait for Martelli and Wright to enter the press room, let’s catch you up on the women’s stats which I’m sure you’re dying to here. The final margin was 56-42, with the Wildcats outscoring the Hawks 32-30 in the second 20 minutes. Lauren Sweeney and Heather Scanlon led the way off the bench with 15 and 10, respectively. The Wildcats’ bench almost beat the Hawks on their own with 38 points.

The Hawks got 10 points each from Gillespie, Ford, and Djouara. They shot just 15-51 from the field (29.1 percent) and finished with 16 turnovers to just three assists.

11:25- Reynolds again sinks both, and a missed three by Govens is fumbled out of bounds by Nova. Crosgile returns the favor on the ensuing possession, and the Cheek dribbles out the clock in a 97-89 win by the Wildcats. Final stats and comments to come.

LIVE: St. Joe’s-Drexel Game blog

10:15- That’s all for tonight; hope you enjoyed our live blog from the first ever game at the Hagan Arena. A thought to go home with: The Hawks lost their first game in the old Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in 1949, a 62-46 loss to Rhode Island. Just some food for thought about what the next sixty years may have in store.

Goodnight everybody.

10:10- Well, it was far from pretty on both ends–“Not a thing of beauty,” as Martelli put it–but the Hawks were able to get it done tonight, and all with Garrett Williamson as a spectator for most of the overtime period. Govens stepped up big in the waning minutes to add some shine to an overall lackluster performance in which Martelli said he “started the first half too slow, and then in the second half, played at a pace he’s not capable of.” He still finished with a game-high 23, 18 of which came in the second half and overtime.

Lots of credit has to go to the youngsters, with Carl Jones (who missed out on the start only because of a missed class this week) and Todd O’Brien coming up huge down the stretch. O’Brien nailed the eventual game winner, and finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Jones was Martelli’s go-to guy down the stretch, logging 31 minutes and finishing with 13 points, including 9 of 12 from the line.

Also in double figures for the Hawks was Idris Hilliard, who slowed in the second half with only one field goal, but still managed 16 points and seven rebounds while leading the Hawks with 40 minutes played. Williamson, despite eight turnovers, also chipped in 11. He and Govens combined for 13 of the Hawks’ 19 turnovers, against just 11 total assists on the game, which was one of Martelli’s biggest post-game concerns.

The Dragons were led by 20 points from Jamie Harris, and a double-double total of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Derrick Thomas added 14 on 4-11 from three. Evan Neisler was held in check tonight, managing just three points on 1-3 shooting against five fouls. Despite a 45-34 rebounding edge for the Dragons, they committed eight more fouls and allowed the Hawks over twice as many free throw opportunities (42 to 20), which the Hawks converted at a 78.6 percent clip (33-42). The Dragons also had three players, including two starters, foul out to go along with a technical foul and two intentional fouls.

But the star of the show tonight, according to Martelli, was the at least 1,700-man strong student section, which he admitted “choked him up”.

“If I had dreamed what it would look like, not that I did, but that would have surpassed my dream,” he said. “They lifted our team with their energy, and I salute them for that.”

Midnight Madness: Pics and Notes

It’s a little late but here are some pictures from Midnight Madness last night. Suffice it to say any night that starts with Phil Martelli in a bird suit is going to go pretty well. But here are some pictures and observations from Night one in the Hagan Arena:

– The night started with the usually frivolities: free food for students, introductions of both teams, some fans fun and games. And the most important portion of the night, The Hawk Walk benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer, which raised $1,340 for cancer research.

– The scoring opened with a three-pointer by Carl “Tay” Jones, ’13. His jumper is decent, and he looks quite quick and shifty. With his lack of size, he better be.

– Idris Hilliard, ’11, looked excellent on the court. He looks faster and stronger than last year, and is evolving into a type-flight slasher. His stroke from the line also looks improved, which will be vital (just ask Ahmad Nivins, ’09).

Men’s Basketball Practice Notes: 10/19

After three hours spent watching men’s basketball practice, I figured I had to write something. So here goes a few observations:

– I was most impressed today with Carl Baptiste, ’13. I’d been led to believe that he was really rough around the edges and a project, and he looked a lot more polished than I would have ever suspected. While he looks like Shetland Blake Griffin, he’s actually pretty fundamentally sound, has a decent jump shot, is comfortable above the rim, and an impressively big body. For me, he’s already supplanted Temi Adebayo, ’12, as the first big man off the bench. Which brings me to:

– Temi’s offensive game is the basketball equivalent of a 1998 Dodge Neon that hasn’t been buffed out: it has absolutely no polish. I know he’s still relatively new to the game, and he obviously has the length to make it work, but it’s not there yet.

– While we’re in the low post, might as well talk about Todd O’Brien, ’12. It’s no secret this area could be a problem this year, and O’Brien is the person with the most power to stop it. He showed decent range with his jumper, is very fluid from the line, and was commended by head coach Phil Martelli (while being yelled out), saying he should be “the best offensive rebounder I’ve ever coached”. But what impressed me the most was his passing ability and vision. During halfcourt drills, he fired a few crisp backdoor passes and a behind-the-back pass on the baseline that led to a lay-up.

– In the backcourt, Carl Jones, ’13, is the shortest six footer ever. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s 146 pounds. But he was noticeably the first in the backcourt to tire today and left a lot of shots short in the last hour of practice. His stamina will definitely have to improve.

– Martelli was harping on toughness a lot during practice, which included a drill in how to take charges. During five-on-five drills later, he stopped play several times to reprimand players not taking charges, especially Darrin Govens, ’10.

– Matthew De George ’10