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St. Joe's can't complete comeback in 70-66 loss to Richmond

01/14/2017, 4:30pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Freshman wing Charlie Brown (above) had a good look at a 3-pointer but couldn't get it to drop. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Saint Joseph’s was an inch or two -- tops --  from pulling off the comeback.

Down 18 early in the second half to early Atlantic 10 frontrunner Richmond, a young Hawks squad found some momentum, closing the gap all the way to a solitary point with 90 seconds to go.

But St. Joe’s couldn’t quite find the bottom of the bucket when they needed to most, and the Spiders were able to hang on for a 70-66 win.

The Hawks’ best look came with 33 seconds to play, when freshman Charlie Brown had a good look at a wide-open 3-pointer from the far corner, but his shot went in and out.

“I knew we needed that shot, so there was nothing else for me to do but be confident,” Brown said. “And I missed it. Everything was perfect -- my arms, elbow was straight, I just missed it. I’ve just got to keep working on it.”

After a pair of Richmond foul shots, St. Joe's had another look at a game-tying shot, but the straightaway 3-pointer from junior wing James Demery hit hiron.

Despite the comeback against a Richmond squad that moved to 5-0 in A-10 play (11-6 overall), Phil Martelli wasn’t hearing anything about moral victories afterwards.

Instead, the St. Joe’s head coach was focused on his team’s 17 turnovers, including 11 by sophomore Lamarr Kimble (five) and Demery (six), the team’s two most experienced players by a long shot.

“Everybody [might think], ‘well, the ball was in the basket, down one,’” Martelli said. “No...they didn’t hear they did a good job, I don’t buy any of that stuff. I don’t listen to it, I don’t buy it.

"There’s nothing about nice effort," he added. "Tice effort is winning on the road like (Richmond has) for three games in this league.”

Since losing junior guard Shavar Newkirk and his 20 points per game to a torn ACL on Dec. 30, the Hawks are now 1-3.

They're forced to rely heavily on youth, including Brown and fellow freshman Nick Robinson, who played a combined 65 minutes in the loss. The two wings combined for 27 points, all but three of which came in the second half.

Kimble led St. Joe's (8-8, 2-3) with 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Robinson collected eight rebounds to go along with his 14 points.

The Hawks were matched evenly with the Spiders through the opening 17 minutes, trailing by just one with 2:38 to go until the break.

Then the wheels came off, as Richmond closed out the period on a 12-0 run, punctuated by three 3-pointers. Chris Mooney’s squad also scored the first five points of the second half to get to its largest lead, 46-38.

“We lost attention defensively -- we had to deal with [T.J.] Cline, who’s a magnificent, magnificent player,” Martelli said. “We made an adjustment late and we were not in tune with it. At the offensive end, I haven’t looked at the running score but I guarantee you we turned the ball over.”

That they did, three times in the last two minutes, though those turnovers only led to two points during the spurt.

“There was a lot of missed assignments, a lot of plays we just went mindless on defense," Brown said.

Richmond had its own turnover woes, giving it up 19 times, though the points off turnovers were only 12-8 in favor of St. Joe’s.

Cline, Richmond’s 6-foot-9 senior do-everything forward, came one assist away from his first triple-double of the season, finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists; Martelli also referred to him as the “early player of the year in our league.”

Another Spiders senior, 5-10 guard ShawnDre’ Jones paced the team with 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

St. Joe’s gets back in action on Wednesday with a trip to Massachusetts (11-6, 1-3).

“There are things that we can take out of that,” Martelli said, “but only if we’re better on Monday.”


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