Many Saint Joseph's Hawks fans had their eyes on Saturday night's game against Temple. Last night's game vs. Richmond was not sold out as there were a few-hundred empty seats at Hagan Arena for last night's contest. Perhaps the focus should have been on Richmond first as the Spiders came in and nipped the Hawks 52-49 on Wednesday night.
Richmond (15-14, 6-8 Atlantic 10) controlled the tempo throughout with their modified Princeton offense style along with an aggressive match-up zone that was switching on all screens. It may have seemed like deja vu for Saint Joseph's (18-11, 8-6 A-10) as they struggled late against George Washington on Saturday against an aggressive 1-3-1 zone scheme. The match-up zone befuddled the Hawks against the Spiders, as they never got a flow on the offensive end while only scoring two fast break points.
Richmond held a single digit lead for most of the first half, eventually leading by as many as eight points with 9:47 left in the first half.
St. Joe's made their run after that point, outscoring Richmond 13-2 over the next seven minutes and going ahead 21-18. A C.J. Aiken three-pointer would then put the Hawks up 24-20 with 1:34 to go in the first half.
However, the Hawks would go into the locker room behind as a result of two mistakes made by their backcourt tandem of Carl Jones and Langston Galloway. Both players fouled Darien Brothers while he was shooting a three-pointer on consecutive possessions, the former making that error with just tenths of a second left in the first half. Brothers knocked down 5-of-6 free throws during the stretch to give Richmond a 25-24 halftime lead.
Richmond would take control of the game in the second half, going on a 9-0 run early in the second half, knocking down three-pointers on three consecutive possessions, with two shots from downtown from Cedrick Lindsay putting the Spiders up 40-29 with 14:35 left.
St. Joe's would get within six on a couple of occasions, but would not get any closer than that until the final minutes of the contest. The Hawks went on a 9-0 run which spanned over four and a half minutes to eventually tie the game at 49 on a three-pointer from Jones with 32 seconds left.
Richmond held for what it was hoping would be the final shot and Derrick Williams was able to draw a foul on Aiken. Williams hit the first free throw, then Hawks coach Phil Martelli called his final timeout to discuss the Hawks game plan whether Williams made or missed the free throw. Williams missed, but something not according to plan was Halil Kanacevic calling a timeout when the Hawks had none remaining, resulting in a technical foul.
Brothers hit both technical free throws to put the Spiders back up by three. Jones was able to get a desperation attempt off to finish the game, but it did not threaten going in the basket, providing a bitter end to the contest for the Hawks.
After the game, Martelli credited Richmond for putting their stamp on the game. "They (Richmond) put their style into play,” Martelli said, "We let the game get slowed and offensively in practice we looked sharp, but we didn’t perform sharp.”
Despite the setback and a performance that certainly seemed disjointed, Martelli seemed to still express some confidence in this Hawks bunch, adding "This was a setback because it was a loss, not because there’s a train coming that we can’t get out of the way of."
Galloway led the Hawks with 15 points while Jones was the only other Hawk in double-figures with 10. St. Joe's shortened their already short bench in this one, with only six players playing over five minutes in the game.
Williams led the victorious Spiders with 17 points while Brothers added 12 and Lindsay netted 10 points.
Saint Joseph's is next in action on Saturday evening as they will play nationally-ranked Temple on campus for the first time since 2001 at 7PM. The Owls squeaked by La Salle last night 80-79 in overtime to win their 11th straight game. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Other Notes
* Chris Wilson was late to a morning shootaround for the second consecutive game and did not play. Martelli said that provided Wilson is on-time for practices and shootarounds leading up to Saturday that disciplinary action will not go beyond last night's game.
* Richmond won its third-straight game at St. Joe's, a program first.
* In other bubble team news, one other team also had an at-large crippling loss with Central Florida falling to Rice. George Mason all but lost their at-large hopes with a loss to Northeastern, while Drexel and VCU continued to make a case for an at-large bid as they were both victorious.
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