City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Non-conference play is a fair parameter to judge the state of one’s team, as that portion of the schedule comes to a close and the imperative conference portion of the regular season schedule lies ahead.

As St. Joe's head coach Phil Martelli watched his team beat Lafayette handily, 92-63 on Thursday night to move one game above .500, he was far from satisfied with what he's seen out of his Hawks over the opening 11 games of the season.

“I said that coming here to be average isn’t what we need,” Martelli said. “And not what we accept. So I’ve been a little bit harsh on them, I haven’t mentioned Christmas, I haven’t mentioned the break.”

Martelli is going to use the break to find a way to take some of the load off of junior guard Shavar Newkirk, who is yet to play under 30 minutes in a contest this season and is also leading the Hawks in scoring and assists, as well.

“I think he’s playing too many minutes. I have to figure out a way to get them down a little bit,” Martelli said.

While the abundance of minutes may not be ideal for Martelli, Newkirk has capitalized on the opportunity as the Cardinal Hayes (N.Y.) graduate is averaging 21.2 points per contest, up from the 8.0 he averaged last season.

“I want Shavar to be a great point guard, and great point guards don’t necessarily have to score,” Martelli said. “On our team, he has to score, and that’s why I’m saying it’s too much, he’s being asked to do too much.”

Newkirk continued to lead the way for the Hawks against Lafayette, as he led SJU in scoring with 24 points, including scoring the first 10 for his squad. He realizes that his production is crucial to the team, but he doesn’t head into contests with the mindset that he has to do it all for the Hawks.

“I’m never going out there saying I have to score this much, I’m going out there saying I have to compete, we have to compete and get a win,” Newkirk said.

After St. Joe’s jumped ahead by 13 in the early going, Lafayette responded by scoring eight of the next 11 and the Leopards trailed 18-10 with 11:52 to go in the first half.

St. Joe’s then responded to Lafayette’s burst with one of their own, as a 10-2 run by SJU put the Hawks up by 16 and they never look back.

“I put it as a great win,” sophomore Lamarr Kimble said. “We definitely executed on defense and offensively. We were really able to dial in and play together today.”

Kimble, who aided Newkirk’s scoring effort with 22 of his own, found his groove in the second half as he hit for 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the latter frame.

Finishing their nonconference schedule with a win is a nice feeling for St. Joe’s, but they know that a 6-5 record is nothing to be thrilled about.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Newkirk said. “There’s still a lack of efficiency on the offensive end and we still break down defensively.”

In addition to scoring 92 points, a season high for St. Joe’s, it was their defense, which forced 20 turnovers by Lafayette, who know falls to 4-7, was what got the game rolling for SJU.

Leading Lafayette in the scoring column was Germantown Academy graduate, senior guard Nick Lindner, who finished with 14.

“I think we definitely did good on defense,” Kimble said. “We took away their strengths and made them feel uncomfortable out there. I think we had them on their heels.”

One of three captains, Kimble is also putting some serious mileage on his body. The 29 minutes he played against Lafayette was the first time he'd played under 30 all season.

With two players combining to average over 60 minutes of playing time per contest, and scoring nearly half of St. Joe’s points, Martelli knows that trying to keep that up would be a recipe for disaster once league play comes around.

“I know that’s not, because now the scouting gets much more intense,” Martelli said. “And when we’ve played up, so if you want to label teams, I’m not knocking anybody that we’ve played, when you play up league-level teams, we’re 0-fer.”

An eight day break between their triumph over Lafayette and their conference opener with George Washington, along with a four day break until their next practice, will allow Martelli to innovate the way the Hawks have been playing and take some of the load off of Newkirk and Kimble.

“When we come back on the 27th, the night practice on the 27th is going to be all offense. We have to come up with quicker, we have to come up with wrinkles,” Martelli said.

The break will be a nice rest for the Hawks, but once they come back, it is going to be a battle night in and night out with the Hawks fighting to make a repeat appearance in the NCAA Tournament come March.

The season-long battle is one that Kimble feels better prepared for his second time around.

"I knew it was one of the top leagues but after playing in it for a year you realize each game is a battle in the A-10,” he said. “We’ll go day by day, our first opponent is George Washington and we’ll take it from there.”