PICTURES: St. Joe’s Men’s Basketball celebrates season at banquet

The St. Joe’s men’s basketball season officially came to an end tonight with the annual awards banquet held at the Campion Banquet Center. The marathon event which head coach Phil Martelli likened to an episode of Roots last nearly five hours, only five minutes of which included a highlight video, and saw the team dish out a number of personal accolades and show thanks to the many people involved with the program on and off the court. Here is a gallery of the night’s biggest highlights:

(All photos by Matthew De George ’10)

Esteemed Athletic Director Don DiJulia offers his remarks on the evening.

Senior captain Garrett Williamson takes home the biggest piece of hardware on the night in the John P. Hilferty Memorial Award as Most Valuable Player.

University president Timothy R. Lannon, S.J., offers a few words before dinner.

Phil Martelli tries to slip into the banquet hall under the radar to get the festivities under way.

Former Hawk standout guard Rap Curry welcomes former player and head coach John Griffin into the SJU Basketball Hall of Fame.

Senior managers Brittany Keesling and Molly Porth are honored with the Daniel J. Cummins Award for spirit.

Darrin Govens is the recipient of the William F. Maher Memorial Award for loyalty.

Phil Martelli presents Brienne Ryan with the William J. Bennet Memorial Award for dedication and service to the program.

Bill Phillips, ’02, takes to the podium to speak at his enshrinement into the St. Joe’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Head Coach Phil Martelli closes the night with some final remarks on the season.

CJ Brown earns the Patrick D. O’Pake Memorial Award as the team’s unsung hero, presented by assistant coach Dave Duda.

Garrett Williamson receives the Robert F. O’Neill Award as the team’s most improved player. He also won this award as a sophomore.

A full house of some 300 people were on hand to celebrate the 2009-10 Hawks.

Pat McGrory, ’94, a former Hawk mascot, is awarded the Michael J. Conway Memorial Award for his work with the Hawk Hoops booster club.

Joe Lundardi, Master of Ceremonies for the evening, gets the night started with a little NCAA Tournament Expansion humor.

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…

Men’s Basketball News and Notes, 9-4

I know we’ve got a little while until basketball season starts officially, but here are this week’s news and notes from Hawk Hill.

After two years as a walk-on, Brown has earned a scholarship. (Photo by Greg Carroccio '02)

-The Athletic Department has just confirmed that C.J. Brown, ’10, has been awarded a scholarship for this year. He walked on the team as a sophomore and junior. He represents the 13th and final scholarship for the team.

In his career, he is averaging 0.3 points per game in 14 games played over two season. He was named the team’s co-Most Improved Player along with Idris Hilliard ’11.

-Ahmad Nivins won’t be the member of the St. Joe’s class of 2009 hooping it up in Europe next year. Last week, Tasheed Carr signed on to play in Israel with Ironi Nahariya in Israel’s premier league. The team has plenty of local flavor, having also signed former Delaware standout and ’09 graduate Marc Egerson, as well as former Atlantic 10 player DeMarco Johnson from Charlotte.

Ironi finished 10-12 in the league last season, good for seventh and an exit in the league quarterfinals.

-Matthew De George ’10