Saint Joseph's rebounded from their tough loss at Temple on Saturday by going on the road and netting their first A-10 road win of the season, 70-60 over Richmond last night at the Robins Center.
During the first half the Hawks (14-9, 4-4 Atlantic 10) struggled on the offensive end as they committed nine turnovers and shot poorly for the majority of the half. Richmond (12-11, 3-5 A-10) used a 15-2 run over a stretch of just under seven minutes to take a 25-20 lead with 2:53 left in the first half.
However, St. Joe's would score the final seven points of the first half and an alley-oop was thrown down by C.J. Aiken off of a pass from Halil Kanacevic with four seconds left in the first half, giving the Hawks a 27-25 halftime edge.
The Hawks run would continue into the second half, turning into a 22-3 spurt and putting the Hawks in command, increasing their lead to 42-28 with 14:35 to play. Aiken netted 7 points during the run while Daryus Quarles added 6 points.
Richmond then continued the trend of runs in the game by going on a 15-5 stretch of their own and cut the lead to 47-43 with 9:42 remaining after a three-pointer by Cedrick Lindsay. But the Hawks countered that run by running off ten straight points, most of which came via easy baskets. Ronald Roberts had two dunks during the 10-0 rip St. Joe's went on, while Carl Jones also netted four points during the stretch which put the Hawks up 57-43 with 5:47 to play.
While Richmond would score the next seven points to get the score to 57-50 at the final media timeout, the Spiders would get no closer as the Hawks went 10-of-10 down the stretch from the free throw line to help seal the victory.
There were two keys to this victory for the Hawks; balanced scoring and rebounding. The Hawks finished with five players in double figures with Jones leading the charge with 16 points while Aiken added 14, Langston Galloway netted 13, Quarles finished with 12 and Roberts had 11 points in the victory. St. Joe's also dominated the glass, outrebounding the Spiders 47-27 for the game.
The Hawks will try and sustain their momentum on Saturday afternoon as they take on Big 5 and Atlantic 10 rival La Salle at noon. The game against the sole leader of the Atlantic 10 is a Hawks home game but will be played at The Palestra and TV coverage of the game can be seen on The Comcast Network.
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