The Saint Joseph's Hawks notched their fifth win in their last six games as they held off a late charge by George Washington to come away with a 73-66 victory at the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the high energy from the biggest crowd of the season for the Colonials on Homecoming Day, George Washington was mainly lifeless during the first half as the Hawks seized control of the game midway through the first half.
Langston Galloway, who came off of the bench because he was late to shootaround, keyed the Hawks 14-0 spurt by knocking down consecutive three-pointers and scoring eight points during the stretch. St. Joe's (18-10, 8-5 Atlantic 10) found themselves with a 22-9 lead with 7:59 left in the first half, much to the dismay of Colonials (9-17, 4-8 A-10) coach Mike Lonergan who quickly burned two timeouts in a short span during the first half.
The Hawks would go on another spurt, this time a 9-1 run which was ignited by Daryus Quarles, who netted seven points during the spurt, giving them a 31-12 lead with 3:58 left in the first half.
Saint Joseph's hit the locker room with a 37-20 lead over the Colonials. It was a half that saw the Hawks outscore the Colonials 20-10 in the paint while winning the battle on the boards 22-12.
In fact, Lonergan told the television broadcast crew during halftime that, "It's effort, the effort just is not there." He also added, "We're just trying to find five guys who will play hard, we've been soft on the inside."
The Colonials seemed to listen to their coach's concerns in the second half as a quick 10-0 run had George Washington within single digits at 39-30 with 16:23 left, with Lasan Kromah scoring six points during the run.
A defensive adjustment by Lonergan helped spur the next Colonials run, as they went to a 1-3-1 zone that the Hawks had no answers for. The Hawks turned the ball over on consecutive possessions, giving George Washington an opportunity at a couple of run-outs. A fast break lay-up by Tony Taylor finished a 6-0 Colonials run and cut the Hawks lead to just four, 58-54 with 5:12 left.
The Hawks would quell the rally over the next 90 seconds with Galloway making a key tip-in off of a missed three-pointer by Carl Jones, followed by a Jones lay-up on the following possession to put the Hawks back up by eight, 62-54 with 3:36 left.
George Washington would again cut the lead down to four on two separate occasions, but St. Joe's made two key plays to seal the deal late. First, Jones hit a corner three-pointer with two players in his face to restore the Hawks lead to seven with 1:50 to play.
The final dagger came a little over 80 seconds later, with the Hawks up five they were able to throw a home-run pass for C.J Aiken against the press of George Washington. Aiken was alone for an easy slam with 27 seconds left, sealing the Hawks third consecutive road victory, a season high road-winning streak.
Galloway led the Hawks with 18 points while Jones added 16 points and Quarles netted a season-high 15 points in the victory. Halil Kanacevic also had another impressive performance, notching 10 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.
Taylor was the Colonials leading scorer with 14 points, Kromah added 13 points and David Pellom had 12 points and 11 rebounds in a losing effort.
The Hawks head into the final three games of the regular season in the driver's seat for a first-round A-10 Tournament bye as they have passed Massachusetts in the standings and moved into 4th place in the conference.
Looking even further ahead, an NCAA Tournament bid is now looking like a possibility, especially if they are able to find a way to knock off red-hot Temple next Saturday.
Before we get to the inner-city rivalry with Temple, the Hawks will be in action on Wednesday evening at Hagan Arena as they will face off against the Richmond Spiders, who are 5-8 in A-10 play. Tip-off is slated for 7 PM.
Other Notes
* Evan Maschmeyer started in place of Galloway, playing six minutes and scoring 2 points while also providing an assist.
* Chris Wilson would have likely started in Galloway's place but he was also late to shoot-around and did not enter the game until the final four minutes of the first half. Wilson did not score in nine minutes of action.
* The announced attendance with 3,774, the largest crowd for a game at the Smith Center this season.
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