City of Basketball Love

Daniel Hughes (@dan1el_sun)
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Hagan Arena is starting to feel less and less like home for Saint Joseph’s.

On Saturday afternoon, the Hawks dropped their sixth home game of the year to Massachusetts, 87-76.

UMass improved to 13-12 (3-9 A-10) behind 24 points from Donte Clark. St. Joe’s (10-14, 3-9 Atlantic 10) is now 5-6 in games played at Hagan.

This loss comes in the middle of two tough road games for St. Joe’s. On Tuesday night, the Hawks made the grueling trip out to Dayton, where they lost to the conference-leading Flyers. This upcoming Tuesday, they will head down to VCU to face the second best team in the A-10.

However, rather than getting somewhat of a break at home on Saturday against the Minutemen, St. Joe’s fell behind early and never caught up. Clark had made four 3-pointers before five minutes of play time had ended to give his team a 10-point lead.

According to head coach Phil Martelli, his team did not react well after UMass captured that early lead, despite a good half week of practice leading up to the game.

“We had a day off (last) Wednesday and in our scouting report we talked about preparation has to equal performance,” Martelli said. “I didn’t like our response to the beginning. We played silently and we got hurt defensively.”

Not only did St. Joe’s lose its second game of the year to the Minutemen, the Hawks also may lose their third starter of the year to injury.

Sophomore Lamarr Kimble, the team’s starting point guard and one of its three captains, went down holding his left foot on a drive to the basket with 12-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second half. He continued to play until four and a half minutes remaining, but was hobbling and later was seen walking on crutches.

Per Martelli, Kimble went to get an X-ray after the game ended.

If Kimble does not return this season, he would be the third Hawks starter lost to injury this year. Sophomore forward Pierfrancesco Oliva was sidelined with a knee injury in the offseason, while Shavar Newkirk suffered a torn ACL in a December 30 game against George Washington.

Before Newkirk’s junior campaign ended, he was leading St. Joe’s in scoring with 20.3 points per game. With Newkirk out, Kimble became the team’s number one scoring option, and he began to play significantly more. The 6-foot point guard played a full 40 minutes seven times this year, and had played every minute in the Hawks’ last three games.

Freshman forward Charlie Brown has also stepped up recently, averaging 16.4 points in his last seven games. He led the Hawks with 15 on Saturday, including four 3-pointers.

However, it was not enough to keep up with Clark and his freshman teammate Luwane Pipkins. In the first half alone the duo shot 8-for-13 from three-point range, and they did it quickly against a zone defense from St. Joe’s. Their fifth make came right after the 16-minute mark of the first half.

“The plan in the beginning was zone them, and they made eight 3s,” Martelli said. “Credit to them, they beat the plan.”

St. Joe’s used a zone defense effectively against Dayton. They began the game Saturday in zone as well to try and contain 6-11 center and Schalick (N.J.) product Rashaan Holloway.

However, they did not anticipate the shooting performances that Clark and Pipkins turned in.

“(UMass) came out firing at once,” Brown said. “We were surprised. We didn’t know that they were going to shoot the ball that good, because they’re not known for shooting.”

After the rough start, the Hawks righted themselves and brought it to within three on a 3-pointer by Brown with 11:08 to go in the first. But throughout the game, whenever St. Joe’s made it close, the Minutemen would come right back and widen the gap. UMass scored seven straight and the lead was back to double-digits in less than two minutes.

St. Joe’s also fell short after a 10-0 run in the second half that tied the game at 55. Pipkins and Dejon Jarreau came up with two quick steals and were able to score five points in 17 seconds for the Minutemen. Any momentum the Hawks had was lost immediately.

Pipkins finished with 24 on 5-for-14 shooting from the field. For St. Joe’s, Kimble ended up with 12 and freshman Nick Robinson scored 10.

There’s been a lot of bad luck for the Hawks this season, but they have not used injuries as an excuse. Brown, who might be the team’s number one option if Kimble does not play, looks ahead to VCU, knows that there is a lot of work to be done as the team leaves Hagan disappointed once again.

“We’ve just got to get better. Can’t say nothing more, nothing less,” Brown said. “We’ve got to rise up, everybody. Every player, every coach, has just got to rise up.”