City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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St. Joe’s kept pace with VCU at the top of the Atlantic 10 standings, pulling away from St. Louis, 77-63, on Saturday afternoon at Hagan Arena. The Hawks improved to 13-3 in conference play and 24-5 overall, entering the final week of the season with just two regular season games remaining.

At first…
St. Joe’s jumped out to an 18-12 lead, but the Hawks had some trouble maintaining an advantage in the first half. The Billikens hung right with St. Joe’s for the first 20 minutes and even held a 25-24 lead with about five minutes until halftime. St. Joe’s led 35-32 at the intermission thanks to a late Shavar Newkirk 3-pointer.

Turning point…
Lamar Kimble sparked a 7-2 run with about five minutes left, that gave St. Joe’s a 65-57 lead. As the Hawks struggled to pull away from St. Louis for most of the second half, the freshman’s back-to-back possessions of a 3-pointer and a key assist to Isaiah Miles off an offensive rebound helped his team get some space to breath.

Shining stars…
Miles and DeAndre' Bembry did their thing for St. Joe’s with 18 and 27 points, respectively. But Kimble’s eight points and six assists were also very valuable for the Hawks. Jermaine Bishop had 15vpoints for St. Louis.

Noteworthy numbers…
The 24 wins for the Hawks matches their win total from two seasons ago when they qualified for the NCAA Tournament. St. Joe’s has not won more than 24 games in a season since going 30-2 in the 2004-04 campaign. …The teams combined to shoot 13-for-50 (16 percent) from 3-point range. …St. Joe’s had 21 assists on 26 made field goals.

Up next…
St. Joe’s (24-5, 13-3 Atlantic 10) at St. Bonaventure, 3/2, 7 p.m.
St. Louis (10-18, 5-11) at La Salle, 3/2, 6 p.m.