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St. Joe's suffers heartbreaking double-OT loss to Fordham

02/05/2017, 1:00am EST
By Daniel Hughes

Antwoine Anderson (0) and Fordham celebrate an 86-83 2OT win at St. Joe's. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Daniel Hughes (@dan1el_sun)
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For Saint Joseph’s, this one might sting a little bit longer than usual.

The Hawks led Fordham by 11 late in the second half before the Rams forced overtime. Lamarr Kimble played terrifically as one overtime became two. Freshman Charlie Brown scored a career high 22 points on six 3s.

None of it mattered though, as Rams redshirt junior Antwoine Anderson hit a 3-pointer at the final buzzer, lifting the Rams to a 86-83 win after an exhausting 50 minutes of action.

After the loss, St. Joe’s drops to 10-12 (3-7 Atlantic 10) on the season. Fordham improves to 10-13 (4-6 A-10), but it took some heroics to do so.

After a go-ahead layup by Anderson with 13 seconds left in the second overtime, Kimble drove the lane and was fouled. He went to the line and made both of his free throws to tie it, just as he had done with five seconds left in the first overtime period.

But this time around, Fordham didn’t waste a chance to win it. Anderson took the ball off the inbound, and beat the press going up the court. He pulled up from the top of the key, and took a long 3-pointer, which dropped in.

The crowd at Hagan Arena was stunned silent, but Anderson and the rest of the Rams thundered onto the court to celebrate.

Hawks head coach Phil Martelli was asked what he thought about the final shot: “I think it was good enough to go in the basket.”

This win didn’t come easy for Fordham. St. Joe’s led for most of the game, but fell apart down the stretch and in overtime.

St. Joe’s was in control for the first 35 minutes, thanks to strong play by Brown, the 6-6 wing out of St. Thomas More (Conn.). The Philadelphia native and George Washington grad played arguably the best basketball of his career in his first game not being in the starting lineup.

Kimble led the way in extra time however, making all four of his free throws in extra time. He was the only Hawk to score in the second overtime period, contributing eight points, to end with a team-high 24 points.

The first overtime period was marked with missed free throws from the Hawks, as junior wing James Demery missed four straight free throws from the start, while Fordham made their first six free-throws. The Hawks shot 60.0 percent for the game, and Demery finished 6-for-15 from the charity stripe.

“I mean two guys going 7-for-20 from the foul line,” Martelli said, referring to Demery and sophomore Markell Lodge, who shot 1-for-5. “It’s embarrassing.”

However, when it came down to it, the Hawks’ defense failed them. And according to Hawks head coach Phil Martelli, they were unable to convert on offense once the Rams switched to a zone in the second half. In the first half, St. Joe’s shot 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from the field, but in the second, they only managed to shoot 33.3 percent (9-of-27).

“We froze against the zone in the last two minutes,” Martelli said. “We just held the ball for too long.”

The Hawks have now lost two straight after the drubbing they suffered against Davidson on Tuesday night. Martelli was upset with the way his young team communicated on defense.

“I don’t think we communicated well at all, and that’s been part of our trying to grow up.” Martelli said. “Nobody talks anymore during the game. You can’t guard the way we want to guard and not communicate.”

Kimble, who played all 50 minutes, noticed that his squad slowed down considerably in the final moments of regulation.

“We didn’t have that same energy competing and thinking that we did probably 35 minutes of the game,” Kimble said. “Our physicality just stopped and that’s why they were able to do what they wanted.”

“I felt like we just rushed a lot of things against the zone,” he added.

Up next, St. Joe’s will travel to Dayton, where they will face a Flyers squad that is tied with VCU for first in the league at 8-2. Their three-game homestand, which began with a thrilling buzzer-beater win against La Salle on January 28, is now over.

According to Martelli, against Davidson the Hawks did not show enough energy. But Saturday night against the Rams, his team just didn’t have it in them to pull out a win.

“The other night we had no competitive spirit because the day of school and things like that,” Martelli said. “This wasn’t that. We tried, we just weren’t good enough.”


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