Tipoff is at 7:10 tonight. Here’s your dose of previews:
Posts Tagged ‘St. Joe’s’
We all knew that Fran Dunphy and his Temple Owls would be going to the Big Dance after beating St. Joe’s in the A-10 championship on Saturday, but the Hawks’ fate was uncertain. After yesterday’s loss, Phil Martelli said, “I’ve told everybody, if you believe in a greater power than us, pray your (butt) off. Right now, I have to believe in the power of prayer.”
Maybe it has something to do with Easter weekend approaching, but not only were Martelli’s prayers answered — so too were those of Holy War rival Villanova. Both Big 5 squads were very much on the bubble heading into today, and both found their way into the tournament bracket.
While Villanova snagged a 12 seed, St. Joe’s wound up with an 11 seed, which is a bit suspect. Why? Because Temple, the A-10 champion, got stuck with a 12 seed. The two teams split the regular season series, but the Owls beat the Hawks in the A-10 championship game, when it counted most. It seems pretty unfair that the Hawks would wind up with the better seed. But hey, it’s just one seed, and when has the tournament selection committee ever been perfectly accurate or fair?
And to top it all off, Notre Dame won more games this season than it ever has before, earning a 5 seed. The dozen or so of you non-Jews at Penn clearly need to go to church more often.
In any event, it is the first time since 1999 that three Big 5 teams have made the tournament. Now, in the one year that Penn finally fails to make the tourney, you have your pick of Cornell or three Big 5 teams to root for.
ATLANTIC CITY — It’s over, the Owls are dancing! The Temple fans streak onto the court and the players go berserk. Christmas rips his shirt off and runs to the sideline, and the bench streaks toward center court. I couldn’t see who, but someone has grabbed Clark and is carrying him off the court. Olmos is flipping out as well. Christmas now is hugging a relative while holding back tears and shouting the whole time.
It was a great game, even though the very end wasn’t down to the wire. Carr turned it on in the second half, and Nivins had a great game, but the collective effort of the Owls was too much, all the way in the second half.
FINAL: Temple 69, St. Joe’s 64
Owls fans are getting ready to rush the court… They start the chant “The Hawk is dead” and Hawks fans claim again it “will never die.”
0:06.1 2nd Half: Temple 68, St. Joe’s 61
The Temple fans are sensing it happening. Carr cuts it to four with a drive, but Brooks hits two on the line.
Tyndale finally hits from the line and it is just about done.
0:20.3 2nd Half: Temple 64, St. Joe’s 59
Calathes spins toward the hoop, and can’t seem to go anywhere. He gets the ball back and misses a three.
Tyndale misses free throws, and Carr misses another three for the Hawks.
0:48.8 2nd Half: Temple 63, St. Joe’s 59
Calathes drains a jumper over Tyndale, just after Tyndale missed two free throws.
Wow, Christmas strips Calathes going to the hoop, and Clark goes to the line for two.
2:27 2nd Half: Temple 63, St. Joe’s 57
Nivins makes both free throws off of the offensive board, but Tyndale drives the lane and finds Brooks on the outside for a triple.
Finally. Calathes hits a three as Tyndale floated to far in help defense, and Carr capitalizes off of a Tyndale miss hard in the lane.
Clark drives, though, and finds Brooks for an easy two. Carr manhandles Brooks once again, though.
But Tyndale takes it into his own hands, again, stepping through for the and-1 to takes a six-point lead. Tyndale then goes back to beating Calathes, this time dishing to Christmas inside.
8:12 2nd Half: Temple 53, St. Joe’s 46
The Hawks fans chant “airball” as Brooks misses from three, and the Owls fans come back with “scoreboard!” I really don’t think “scoreboard” is a valid chant when you’re up six.
Brooks follows that up with an an-1 from 13 feet out, pumping his fist after. There have been a lot of fouls called, maybe a few too many.
9:41 2nd Half: Temple 49, St. Joe’s 44
Calathes is sitcking to Clark, even on screens. Martelli really wants to keep the little man off his game, but it’s not working - Allen hits again.
Christmas is money on a three on the pass from Clark, and the Hawks are in big trouble. Calathes hits a three of his own, though, and it’s back to a 6-pt game.
Then, Allen’s pass to Clark in the corner gets blocked, and the Hawks get the ball back to Nivins inside, and he makes two from the line.
The crowd for both teams is getting louder as the lead is four….
11:52 2nd Half: Temple 43, St. Joe’s 37
Olmos and Nivins can’t convert, and Christmas misses over two guys.
Allen scores inside, but Carr gets three of those points back with an and-1 layup. Calathes is guarding Clark, though it might just be for a possession. Nope, he’s really guarding him.
As a result, Temple works the high-low, and Olmos scores and and-1. Tyndale clenches his fists. This has truly been a fantastic run for Temple, and an equally-amazing collapse for the Hawks. They have scored five points in eight minutes, and were on a five-minutes scoring drought.
It’s a great atmosphere here, both fan groups have been loud, though it’s been Temple producing the noise as of late.
14:53 2nd Half: Temple 39, St. Joe’s 34
Allen dunks around Ferguson in a play that was a lot easier than it should have been. And after a nice skip pass from Tyndale, Christmas hits a well-contested three over Carr.
Nivins scores a nasty tip-in, but Christmas penetrates the lane effortlessly for a layup.
Clark has missed two threes from the corner, but both have been rebounded offensively. Olmos now gets fouled on that possession, and the Owls all of a sudden have a chance to take the lead.
And Clark does just that. And more.
He has the gravitas to attempt yet another corner three, and Clark drains it to take Temple’s first lead of the game. Then Clark plucks Calathes’ pocket and hangs in the air to avoid Carr’s defense to take a five-point lead.
Stats: With Calathes playing only 13 minutes and taking four shots, Govens and Nivins are taking control of the game, scoring nine and 12 points, respectively. Like Govens, Christmas is 4-for-8, but the guard has netted 12 points. Allen has played well inside again for Temple, getting those two blocks as well as four rebounds.
St. Joe’s has made almost twice as many shots as the Owls (13-of-30 to Temple’s 7-of-25). The teams are equal in rebounding, but Temple has committed eight turnovers compared to only four assists.
Halftime: Temple 25, St. Joe’s 32
Man, Clark just hit a huge three. He’s so fast he was essentially guarded by no one after a jab step, and hits the trey.
Martelli deftly calls a timeout with 5.4 seconds remaining in the half. Unlike the second half, the clock keeps running, and it takes three ticks to inbound the ball, so the Hawks save a possession, but Ferguson misses a three.
0:30.4 1st Half: Temple 22, St. Joe’s 32
Olmos finally slows Nivins down, forcing im to shoot a bad hook, but the next possession Nivins once again scores at will.
Brooks gets the ball over Nivins on the perimeter, but doesn’t realize the shot clock is running down until it’s too late.
Calathes is called for travel, or carry or something. I didn’t see anything. Brooks airballs another shot, and Olmos barely gets a layup off before getting fouled.
Clark was just guarding Calathes, funniest thing ever, 14-inch difference. Well, not funny for the Owls. Calathes gets doubled because of it, and Ferguson is wide open for a three which he of course hits. He just might get one of my five votes for all-tourney team.
3:36 1st Half: Temple 21, St. Joe’s 27
Nivins hits an elbow jumper, and Govens scores yet again on a drive. The Hawks always seem to have someone in double
Christmas makes it look easy, hitting another three over Williamson.
Thanks to a screen, Calathes gets by Tyndale and slaps the backboard for a layup, but Christmas is doing his best Darnell Harris impression, nailing a 25 footer. Williamson’s long arms can do nothing about that.
7:46 1st Half: Temple 15, St. Joe’s 21
My, how the tides have changed.
Christmas simply takes the ball from Arvydas Lidzius at midcourt, and scores. The Owls’ 3/4 press doesn’t work, but Lidzius misses from point-blank range.
Then Dionte pulls up from NBA range and sinks it in Williamson’s eye, and as the lanky guard falls on him, it’s a four-point play.
Calathes is back in the game, surprisingly, and misses a three. Govens helps out with another jumper.
Coming off playing the entire game yesterday, Allen throws Idris Hilliard’s shot away, and then has another spectacular block on Nivins, but he’s whistled for a foul on the rebound, and the Owls fans go ballistic.
11:49 1st Half: Temple 5, St. Joe’s 15
Calathes picks up his second foul already, and is out of the game in favor of Garrett Williamson. That’s about the only thing that’s gone wrong for the Hawks.
Christmas misses two threes on one possession, Tyndale misses, gets his own rebound and then misses again. Even Chris Clark bricks a three. On the other end, Govens and company are draining everything.
15:46 1st Half: Temple 5, St. Joe’s 8
The crowd is now almost full, the most packed I’ve ever seen this building, and definitely the loudest. The chants were tame before the game, but the Temple fans booed Phil Martelli when he walked out. That’s just unnecessary.
Govens connects from the elbow, and as Martelli yells something to ref Joe DeMayo, and immediately Guzman is whistled for a carry. Olmos can’t convert and neither can Allen on a jumper, but Calathes misses a three and Ferguson picks up a bad foul on a rebound.
Allen somehow forgets about Nivins, and he scores on a layup inside. Tyndale gets the ball, maybe for the first time of the game, and gets fouled by Calathes on a three. He hits all of the freebies.
Nivins just beasts Olmos inside, nastily dunking on him from the reverse angle. The teams trade layup, and then Carr drives into the lane and somehow finds Nivins on the other side of the paint, and he’s fouled.
______
We’ve eliminated 10 teams, but the Big 5 rules the Atlantic 10 championship game. After demolishing Fordham and Richmond, the Hawks knocked off top-seeded Xavier to enter the title game, facing Temple for the third time this year. With an RPI of 42, the Hawks may get into the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens tonight. Temple has won six straight games and is undefeated in March. The Owls knocked off La Salle in the first round, and fairly easily took out Charlotte last night to reach the final.
The last time these two teams met it was a fantastic game, and even that didn’t quite live up to what happened in the first meeting. With 3.9 seconds left, Calathes sank a three to put the Hawks up by one, but Mark Tyndale came storming down the court and got off a layup at the buzzer, but at the top of its arc, Nivins swatted it away, and the Hawks won. The second time around, the Hawks led by double-figures most of the game until Tyndale scored the game’s final basket with 20 seconds left and the Owls won the rematch.
___
There is a half-hour until tipoff, and this game already has the feel of a Big 5 game. There aren’t a huge number of fans present, but the student sections have already begun chanting at each other.
Starters:
St. Joe’s:
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins
Temple:
G Luis Guzman
G Dionte Christmas
G Mark Tyndale
F Lavoy Allen
C Sergio Olmos
Just as Cornell is the first team in the NCAA Tournament, Penn is one of the first teams out of it.
Normally Big 5 fans have someone to follow once the Quakers lose, but with three Philly teams in the bottom half of the top 100 in the RPI, there’s a very good chance no one from the City of Brotherly Love will be traveling for the Tournament.
Barring a title in the Atlantic 10 Tournament (or at least reaching the final), Temple may have just ended Saint Joseph’s tourney hopes. The Owls led for 20 seconds against St. Joe’s, but did at the only time that matters, topping the Hawks, 57-56.
Temple was down by as many as 14 in the second half, but Mark Tyndale scored 13 second-half points, and his last two were the most important of the game.
After a flare screen failed, Temple gave the ball to Tyndale for an iso on Garrett Williamson, usually a good defender, and with 25 seconds left Tyndale effortlessly blew past him for the easy layup.
His defense was peculiarly bad, but I would not blame him, but instead Ahmad Nivins and to a lesser extent Rob Ferguson for the final shot that took the lead for Temple.
While Tyndale was at the top of the key, Nivins was hugging his man, Sergio Olmos of all people, on the opposite low block, while Ferguson was at the high post. Tyndale drove past Williamson in an instant, and Nivins was a half-second too late to block or even seriously contest the shot.
“I think I caught Garrett with a good move because he’s a great defender,” Tyndale said after the game. “They did a good job of putting their best defender on me at the time. I just made good move.”
On the next play, the forwards would miss another gimme to help out a teammate after a mistake.
You know when you yell “same team” when two guys go for a loose ball? If someone said that loud enough to St. Joe’s, they probably would have won the game.
Ferguson and Nivins both grabbed for the ball with two seconds left, wide open under the basket — as three Owls left the lane to block Tasheed Carr on his last-second effort from 14 feet away on the baseline — but the ball squirted up in the air and was slapped away by Temple and the Owls took the victory.
And just like that, the team that had an RPI of 51 before the game may have let its chances of making the NCAA Tournament slip away.
At 4:30 this morning, six hours into the train ride home and 10 minutes outside of Philadelphia, an Amtrak conductor asked our cabin for electrical tape so he could fix whatever was wrong with our suddenly-immobile vehicle. The look on the face of Andrew Townley, our photographer for this weekend’s road trip, was priceless. Almost as good as the night before, when he nearly got thrown out of the fraternity house I had us shacked up in. Sigh. Not all of the Quakers’ media entourage — *cough*brianseltzer*cough* — get to tag along with the team.
Apparently some tape, somewhere, was located. We’re back home now, an hour later than we should have been but safe and sound, the last Ivy road trip of the season mercifully in the books. Time to check the wires before catching some shut-eye.
Congratulations to Cornell, which did what everyone knew it was going to do last night, beating Harvard to win the Ivy League title and become the first team in the nation with a ticket to the Dance. Dartmouth won at Columbia and Yale topped Princeton, too, although in terms of newsworthiness, today’s report of possible improprieties in recruiting at Harvard is easily tops.
Does this change how Tommy Amaker should be looked at? How much trouble is he in? Post an answer to these questions or any other reactions you might have.
Brown coach Craig Robinson, who was quoted in the story, told me last night that the Times had let him know that the article would run today. I would expect to hear more reactions from the sources who initially declined comment (like Glen Miller) now that the story is out there.
In local action, La Salle’s A-10 win streak ended last night, while Temple-St. Joe’s, Round Two will have big implications in the conference race tonight. The tip is at 7.
I planned on taking it easy on my live blog of the Hawks-Explorers game, maybe updating five times per half, but that plan went downhill fast. It was, legitimately, the most entertaining game I’ve seen all year, although all ESPN seems to show is the Big East, so that doesn’t say too much. You can look at the box score, but here are a few things you might not have noticed.
I will never stop liking St. Joe’s fans, but two of their roll-outs, while funny, were completely incorrect.
- “Keep Exploring the bottom of the A-10.” - the Explorers may have played the easiest imaginable non-conference schedule (two of their wins came against 1-9 St. Bonaventure and one versus 3-8 George Washington), but still they are 5-5 in the Atlantic 10. An even record in the nation’s 8th-best conference according to the RPI. So while that sign is great, the Explorers are proving it wrong.
- “St. Joe’s salutes La Salle fans (both of them).” Again, these two signs are funnier than the Red and Blue Crew’s entire season besides the Drexel game. But the La Salle fans were loud, and down the stretch louder than the St. Joe’s contingent. True, there weren’t a whole lot, but they were just as plentiful as the Villanova fans in the Holy War, and 10-times as ruckus.
Now, here’s my top 5 plays of the game. As Chris Rock used to say as “Nat X” on Saturday Night Live would say, why only five? Because the Inquirer could get a top 10, but I work for a college newspaper and the man would let me get half of that. Okay, really I only have five good ones. (And I refuse to pull a SportsCenter and make “La Salle three-point shooting” one of the top plays.)
First, a couple honorable mention:
- St. Joe’s Ahmad Nivins throwing Jerrell Williams to the ground to make way for a wide open dunk on his team’s first possession. Oh how that was not indicative at all of what happened the rest of the way…
- La Salle’s Rodney Green blocking 6-foot-10 Pat Calathes from behind and going the other way. He got fouled, but didn’t make the layup, costing him a spot.
5. A Hawks fan in the Qdoba shootout won free burritos for a month, doing basically nothing. I what I believe was 35 seconds, he hit a layup, an elbow shot, an elbow shot from the other side and another layup. That’s pretty hard to screw up. In the Penn equivalent you must hit a layup, free throw, three-pointer and a half-court shot for the same prize. Even without the half-court shot the Penn contest is much harder.
4. On a drive in the first half, Calathes took it down the heart of the lane, and while getting his jersey pulled (by I believe Paul Johnson) he threw down a nasty dunk over the La Salle junior. After the play he slapped the ball into the crowd and received a harsh warning from an official (though he didn’t receive a technical).
3. With his team up by one with under 30 seconds to go, Kimmani Barrett got the ball in the post, was double-teamed, but somehow flipped the ball over the big men for the eventual game-winning basket.
2. Eight-minutes in, Williams went up for a monster dunk, taking off from outside of the lane on the right side, and Nivins absolutely rejected him. The 6-9 big man got his entire palm on the ball just before the height of its path, and threw it down. Needless to say, the Hawks fans went berserk.
1. With just over a minute to go and the game tied at 86, Yves Mekongo Mbala missed only his second shot of the night, but Green, a 6-5 guard came flying down the lane for a thunderous dunk to take a two-point lead. It was probably the loudest a La Salle crowd got since Donnie Carr. No Fran Dunphy. No Bill Raftery.
I don’t have much to say today about Penn basketball, but that Remy Cofield still isn’t practicing with his foot injury. Glen Miller wouldn’t say what it was, how long he’s out for, or whether or not he’ll play against Harvard and Dartmouth. He’s “day-to-day.” If the injury isn’t “out for the year”, chances are it’s “day-to-day.”
Getting through the seven-hour bus trip to Dartmouth can be rough, and Brian Grandieri will spend his time watching Lost. That show could even make the Hanover, N.H., trip seem quick. It’d take a bus ride to Japan and back to watch all the episodes of that show.
WOW. Harris misses the front end of the 1-and-1, but on a drive left, Carr loses the ball and the Explorers recover and call timeout with 1.4 to go.
La Salle throws a risky pass the length of the court, and Green gets fouled with a second to go. He misses the first.
A whistle goes off as Green is about to let the second free throw go. He stops mid-shot, and gets called for a violation. He probably would have missed on purpose, making a last-second three almost impossible.
So St. Joe’s inbounds with one second to go. They throw it long, and the pass for Calathes under the basket is knocked by La Salle to Carr, but he can’t get the shot off in time, and the game is over. I can finally stop holding my breath.
That was, no joke, the most entertaining basketball game I’ve seen this year.
0:09.3 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe’s 89
Carr hits a quick layup, a real tough one at that, and the Hawks are down one. Harris gets the ball and is fouled.
0:17.6 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe’s 87
An Explorer misses but Green throws down a monstrous put-back dunk. Williamson hit one from the line, and the Explorers lead by one.
With the shot clock winding down at under 20 seconds left, Barrett hits a tough layup while getting double-teamed. This place is LOUD.
1:22 2nd Half: La Salle 86, St. Joe’s 85
Green hits two from the line and Carr turns it over. Passing around the traps well, the Explorers can’t get off a three like usual, but Mekongo Mbala gets to the line with 1:39 left. He hits the second only to go up 3.
Govens makes a nice entry pass to Nivins, and the big man nails a crucial and-1.
2:39 2nd Half: La Salle 83, St. Joe’s 83
Williams is back in with four fouls, but he gets trapped, and Harris misses the three at the end of the shot clock.
Carr goes streaking across the lane, and hits with zeros on the shot clock. But Johnson answers with his ugly, ugly shot from three. Govens finally misses, and Williams gets fouled on the other end.
Calathes misses, and Green hits a bank to tie it at 81. The La Salle crowd goes nuts, and then erupts when Carr misses, and Barrett hits a reverse layup to take the lead. Calathes answers, though, with a runner with 1 on the shot clock.
Green somehow blocks Calathes, and then gets fouled on a transition layup that he can’t convert. He punches the backboard protector a bunch in frustration.
7:56 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 79, La Salle 75
It’s hard to imagine that a guy who already has nearly 30 points won’t be the player of the game, but Harris hits what I believe is his fifth three of the game. Govens hits a layup, and he’s got 26 points, a third candidate for game MVP.
Garrett Williamson finally makes his presence felt, swatting a Harris three. Calathes goes for a rebound but misses, and angrily sways the ball into the crowd, but he somehow avoids a tech.
The Hawk fans roll out another good sign: “Keep Exploring the bottom of the A-10.” Now “Smiley” the Hatfield pig mascot is shooting hot dogs into the Hawks student section. One goes to the Explorer faithful, and to their delight, the fan throws it back onto the court. The last hot dog of about 20 explodes on its way out of the gun.
The Explorers fans put up a banner: “St. Joe’s has class… Rivera usually cuts it.” referring to the guard who “focused on academics” last semester.
11:39 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 74, La Salle 69
Calathes hits, but so does Guillandeaux on another floater.
Harris, who hit three threes in the first half, is unconscious on this deep one over Ferguson. But once again, Govens returns with a jumper and then a three.
The action never stops. Harris makes Carr fall on the baseline, but misses the three. Then Calathes puts the ball around his back and hits Govens for yet another three.
14:38 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 62, La Salle 63
Carr hits a three to start off the half, but Green turns a steal into two points. Govens converts a nice layup, and now Nivins takes a charge, giving Williams his fourth foul.
Nivins now gets whistled for a charge, and Martelli slams his hand against the scorer’s table. Nice ball-movement gets Gullandeaux an open three, and he connects.
Gullandeaux is taking over now - he hits a jumper in the lane, and then nails a trey in transition. Now Mekongo hits an open three, but it’s answered by Govens. Harris takes back the lead, and Govens gets it right back. Now Barrett gets fouled, and the shot is goal-tended, and the Explorer’s grab back the lead. This has been maybe most electrifying game I’ve seen all year.
Halftime: St. Joe’s 50, La Salle 46
While this section of my post just got deleted, the half ends with the Hawks on top by four. This was an insane first half, not necessarily with bad defense, but the shooting on both sides has been impeccable. St. Joe’s is hitting 67 percent from the field, while La Salle is 47 percent, though 10-for-17 from three.
3:27 1st Half: St. Joe’s 43, La Salle 40
Gullandeaux nails a three off of a nifty pass from Williams, and La Salle takes the lead for the first time.
Calathes comes right back with an and-1 layup (that should have been called on the ground). Giannini disagrees, but spends more time calming down Williams. Calathes then scores again on a sweet baseline jumper from 17 feet.
Harris is nothing but net on a three from NBA range. He is money tonight.
I must give the La Salle fans credit, they are real loud tonight, probably better than the Villanova coningent at the Holy War.
6:05 1st Half: St. Joe’s 34, La Salle 34
Calathes drains a three, but once again it’s answered by the big man, Mekongo Mbala.
Following a Nivins dunk, Mekongo Mbala drains yet another trey, and La Salle has tied it up at 34.
8:21 1st Half: St. Joe’s 29, La Salle 25
Johnson hits a transition layup, and the Explorers are within six, and the teams then trade threes.
Off of a tough offensive rebound, Williams slices through for a layup, and the game is real close now.
Huh, the St. Joe’s staff has a guy walking around the Palestra selling cotton candy.
11:51 1st Half: St. Joe’s 24, La Salle 16
Harris drains a three over Carr, he’s he’s just nasty, has eight points already.
Nivins just made a fantastic and-1, double-teamed in the post but still getting it up.
Wow, Williams cocks it back for a monster dunk, but gets rejected by Nivins, and the crowd goes crazy.
The Hawks fans roll out a sign: “St. Joe’s salutes La Salle fans (Both of them).” A Hawks fan just won a semester of free Qdoba burritos just by hitting a couple of layups and elbow shots. That’s just sad. The Penn Qdoba makes you hit a layup, free throw, three and half-court shot.
15:32 1st Half: St. Joe’s 15, La Salle 10
Both teams are raining threes, as Harris gets the Explorers on the board, Mekongo Mbala hits another, but Calathes nails one from the top of the key to extend the St. Joe’s lead.
Johnson misses a three, but makes a pretty feed (while getting trapped) to Harris, who makes an even prettier finish. But Govens comes back with a ridiculous reverse layup, throwing it off the backboard with great english.
18:44 1st Half: St. Joe’s 6, La Salle 0
On the first possession, Nivins bullys Williams for an easy dunk and then a layup, as Mekongo Mbala completes his team’s second-straight turnover. Calathes adds a dunk and Dr. John Giannini calls timeout.
The crowd is about 75 percent full, and the majority are Hawks fans. The La Salle fans let out a pretty loud chant of “Let’s go ’splorers!”, but it’s drowned out eventually by the “Hawks Are Marching In”
We just had a moment of silence for the Northern Illinois shootings, though that moment lasted no more than two or three seconds.
As the La Salle band plays, the St. Joe’s students try to belt the chant of “Phil Martelli!” over it. We’re just about ready to go at the Palestra, the Hawks wearing the home white, La Salle in blue.
________
With only three games left in the Big 5, nothing is decided. Well, except for that Penn (0-4) won’t win.
Villanova (3-1), Temple (1-1), La Salle (1-1) and Saint Joseph’s (2-0) all have a shot at winning at least a share of the Big 5 title, though the Hawks are the only team that can win the title outright.
La Salle hasn’t been bad lately, going 4-5 in the Atlantic 10, and will likely make the conference tournament, unlike last season. Out of 14 teams, 12 make it to Atlantic City on March 12, and the Explorers sit in 11th place, two games ahead of 13th-place George Washington (3-8).
The Hawks are on the opposite side of the spectrum. Despite recent losses at Xavier and Duquesne, they sit alone in second place at 7-3, though Rhode Island, Richmond and Temple are all one game behind them, chasing those valuable four tourney byes.
An hour before the game, St. Joe’s fans are already here. They aren’t making much noise, but that’s stilll pretty impressive. The Explorers’ student faithful start showing up about 45 minutes early. The Hawks fans do one of my favorite chants “When the Hawks come marching in” replacing “Saints” with their team when their team takes the floor a half-hour before tip-off.
Starters:
St. Joe’s:
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins
La Salle:
G Darnell Harris
G Rodney Green
F Paul Johnson
F Jerrell Williams
F Yves Mekongo Mbala
Thanks for joining me for Villanova-Saint Joseph’s at the Palestra. Refresh this page for live updates of the game.
FINAL: Saint Joe’s 77, Villanova 55
It’s over, mercifully. Villanova’s streak of 14 straight Big 5 wins is finished, too. The Hawks still have La Salle and Temple, but they’re in the driver’s seat for the Big 5 title this year.
Read more on this in tomorrow’s DP.
Good evening from The Buzz.
2:20, Second half: Saint Joe’s 75, Villanova 44
Villanova pulled out a full-court press to little effect, and Calathes just shredded it for an easy deuce. None of the Xs and Os
went Villanova’s way tonight, and the box score will reflect that. Calathes and Govens are out; the scrubs are in.
5:59, Second half: Saint Joe’s 70, Villanova 42
There’s the dagger. Govens hit his fourth three-pointer and Williamson came up with a great block of a Reynolds three. Calathes tipped in a miss after the fast break, and Villanova calls another timeout. The Hawks student section can taste it.
7:30, Second half: Saint Joe’s 65, Villanova 42
St. Joe’s is doing a good job milking the clock and ushering the game toward its all-but-inevitable conclusion. A lot of the credit for this win has to go to the passing of the Hawks. They’ve done a great job of maintaining control of the ball and finding players inside. Calathes and Ferguson have been the big beneficiaries of the passing.
13:36, Second half: Saint Joe’s 56, Villanova 31
Villanova has don’t little to help its cause; the ‘Cats are just fouling too much and St. Joe’s barely seems to miss at the free-throw line. For the Hawks, Carr picked up his fourth foul, meaning we’ll be seeing Williamson for much of the game’s remainder. Ferguson just hit two open threes, which should make this deficit just about insurmountable. Cunningham also has four fouls for ‘Nova.
I’m not sure why Villanova is slowing down the game and dragging out its possessions. They need some quick baskets.
First semi-clever rollout of the game from the St. Joe’s student section: “2 Coreys Don’t Make a Wright”
Halftime: Saint Joe’s 45, Villanova 26
Villanova can’t capitalize on some sloppy play by the Hawks, and the situation only gets worse when Govens hits yet another three as the first half was winding down. Lots to talk about in the Wildcats locker room.
2:36, First half: Saint Joe’s 42, Villanova 22
Obviously too early to call things, but all signs point to a blowout. Calathes hit another deep three and then corralled a steal on the next possession and threw down a thunderous dunk. Game is the Hawks’ to lose at this point.
4:07, First half: Saint Joe’s 35, Villanova 20
Drummond scored in the post, but Rob Ferguson hit a big three-pointer to stretch the lead to 15. Villanova calls timeout, and the small minority wearing blue and white is nearly silent.
5:13, First half: Saint Joe’s 30, Villanova 18
St. Joe’s is going to win the game at the free throw line at this rate. They’re pushing the ball effectively in transition and earning fouls as they attack the rim. Villanova, meanwhile, has gone cold, its inside play and offensive rebounding keeping it in the game for now.
7:00, First half: Saint Joe’s 24, Villanova 18
Villanova closed the gap to one, but yet another three from Govens made it 22-18 Hawks. Garrett Williamson is in now for St. Joe’s, which is playing like an NCAA Tournament team. Villanova is playing relatively well too, their big men more so than their guards, who aren’t doing much more than jacking up threes. They’ve made a good deal of them so far, but they’ll need to get better shots to catch the Hawks. St. Joe’s looks pretty locked in.
10:40, First half: Saint Joe’s 15, Villanova 10
Govens hit another three and Nivins hit two free throws, but Villanova has been chipping away with some good inside play of its own, along with a deep three from Reynolds.
My impressions on Reynolds so far are that he plays as advertised. Great talent, very quick, plays out of control at times. He has two turnovers and probably should have just had another travel called.
15:40, First half: Saint Joe’s 10, Villanova 4
Darrin Govens scored in transition, and an Ahmad Nivins jam after Govens missed his free throw gave the Hawks an early lead. Corey Fished hit a jumper, but Tasheed Carr answered with one of his own, and after a patented quick-release three-pointer from Pat Calathes, it’s 10-4 Hawks and Jay Wright calls timeout. The St. Joe’s defense has been smothering so far.
Here are your starting lineups:
Villanova (13-7, 3-0 Big 5)
F Antonio Pena
F Dante Cunningham
G Scottie Reynolds
G Reggie Redding
G Corey Fisher
St. Joe’s (14-5, 2-0)
F Rob Ferguson
F Pat Calathes
C Ahmad Nivins
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
It took a step down this year, from ESPN2 to CSTV, but it shouldn’t be too hard to follow the annual St. Joe’s-Villanova game. For those willing to cough up $10, a pay-per-view option is available on the Hawks’ website, and for the tight-fisted, Joe Lunardi will be calling the action on WNTP (990 AM). I’ll also be courtside at the Palestra, blogging away, so be sure to check back here around 8.
For a preview, check out the Inquirer article here.
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