City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
––

A busy Saturday around the city’s Division I programs, with eight of the 12 teams in action — four home, four on the road. Here’s a notebook of Big 5 coverage, results, news and notes from Saturday:

~~~

St. Joe’s nightmare Atlantic 10 start continues
An 0-2 start in Atlantic 10 play was far from ideal for St. Joe’s men. Against Loyola (Chicago) on Saturday, the Hawks looked like they were ready to finally get back on the winning side of things — only to let one slip through their fingers at the worst possible time. 

It was less than a month ago that a win over Iona put Billy Lange’s group at 9-2 overall, the Big 5 champs one of the early-season favorites to make some real noise in the A-10. Instead, a 78-75 loss to Loyola has St. Joe’s at 0-3 in the Atlantic 10, 10-6 on the year.

Though that makes it four losses in five games, with another late collapse, Lange is focused on staying the course. He’s made it clear throughout his tenure that he doesn’t buy into anything big-picture besides constant progress, and that was the theme of his postgame press conference once again.

“I believe in the guys in the locker room, I believe in our staff, I know what we’re doing is good — I have zero lack of confidence in everything that we’re doing,” he said. “We just have to keep getting better, and at the end when things aren’t going as well as we want, we have to learn that’s basketball and keep going.”

Those words might be of little solace to a St. Joe’s fanbase that was ready to watch its team chase another NCAA Tournament berth, and instead watched as what should have been a sure win became yet another loss. 

After trailing by single digits most of the way, St. Joe’s looked like it was ready to put Saturday’s game away, going up nine points with 6:13 left after back-to-back 3-pointers by Erik Reynolds II. But Loyola (11-6, 3-1) responded with a 13-3 run, tying it up at 71 with 2:42 left, then took the lead on a 3-pointer by Jayden Dawson (20 points) with 1:12 remaining.

Reynolds II, the Hawks’ star junior guard, led the way with 26 points in the win, but missed two good potential game-tying 3-pointers in the final 15 seconds. St. Joe’s had one final look at a game-tying heave after a missed pair of Loyola foul shots, but Xzayvier Brown’s contested attempt from half-court fell short.

Lange knows he has his best team in his fifth year, December wins over Villanova and Princeton proof they can hang with anyone. There are real concerns, especially with the way the team has defended down the stretch in all three of its recent losses, and its ability to get any consistent bench production from anybody outside of Brown, who scored 13 points against Loyola. 

It’s true that there’s still 15 games of conference play left, enough time for the Hawks to put together a big winning streak and end up with one of the top four spots in the league and the double-bye it provides in the A-10 tournament in March. That starts with a home game Monday against city rival La Salle (10-7, 1-3), with a difficult stretch — vs. Duquesne, at UMass, at Bonaventure, vs. George Mason — coming up behind that. 

“I don’t like disappointment, I don’t like them to feel like they’re disappointing anyone,” Lange said. “This team has done some great stuff this season, and we still have a lot of games left to play. I have to get them to keep their heads in the right spaces, which is part of coaching as much as out of bounds and defensive plays are.”

~~~

Strong conference starts continue for multiple Big 5 teams
Three programs off to great 2024s so far — the Drexel men (12-6, 5-0 CAA), St. Joe’s women (15-2, 4-1 A-10) and Villanova women (11-5, 4-1 Big East) kept it rolling with wins on Saturday. 

St. Joe’s women got the day started with a 77-62 win over Duquesne, keeping them right up in the top of the A-10 mix. Only Richmond — which is 4-0 and beat SJU last weekend — sits unscathed early in conference play, four one-loss teams behind them. 

In winning for the seventh time in eight games, Cindy Griffin’s squad got another outstanding performance from its frontcourt. Sophomore Laura Ziegler (25 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists) and junior Talya Brugler (23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) both shined, while junior wing Mackenzie Smith added 18 points on eight shots, that trio combining for all but 11 of their team’s points.

Duquesne (8-8, 3-2) led 16-15 after one quarter but St. Joe’s battled back to go up three at halftime. A 12-0 run out of the half, spurred by a couple Smith treys, blew the game open, though the Dukes battled back to within six points with 7:30 left before the Hawks closed strong. 

Down in North Carolina, Drexel improved to 5-0 in league play for the first time since 1996-97 with an 89-69 win over Elon (8-9, 1-3), continuing a surge for a program that had high hopes entering the season but hadn’t quite lived up to them early on. 

Drexel went 0-2 in the Big 5 and gave up 104 points to Bryant in the last game of the non-league, but ever since the calendar has hit 2024, the Dragons have looked like a whole new group. They’ve won four of the five by at least 15 points, only North Carolina A&T (67-63) coming within single digits. 

All five Drexel starters hit double figures in the 20-point win over Elon, led by a 22-point outing from Mate Okros, who shot 6-of-8 from downtown. Amari Williams added 17 and six rebounds, with Luke House (13 points), Justin Moore (11 points, 7 assists) and Lucas Monroe (10 points, 5 rebounds) all having quality outings, as did reserve forward Garfield Turner (9 points, 7 rebounds).

The Dragons and Phoenix traded shots early, Drexel leading by five 12 minutes into the game. The Dragons closed out the half on a 24-8 stretch, mostly from inside, before Okros and House’s jumpers helped them stay comfortably ahead the second half. 

Finally, to close out the night, Villanova’s women got off to a strong start to down Butler 65-54. The Wildcats opened up with an 18-8 first quarter, then used a 22-13 third to go up 15 points entering the fourth quarter, taking down a Bulldogs team that was looking for its first Big East win in five tries.

Freshman guard Maddie Webber went for a team-high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, taking some pressure off star junior Lucy Olsen (15 points, 6 assists). Eight different Wildcats entered the scoring column in total, with a 15-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio a great sign for Denise Dillon’s offense. 

All three teams return home for their next games. Drexel hosts Monmouth (9-8, 2-2) on Thursday; St. Joe’s hosts La Salle (6-10, 3-2) on Monday as part of a men’s/women’s doubleheader; Villanova hosts Marquette (14-2, 3-2) on Wednesday. 

~~~

Lehigh Valley product Fermin thriving in second year at VCU
After barely seeing the court a year ago, Christian Fermin has a lot more to smile about this year. 

The bouncy 6-foot-10 Pocono Mt. West product played in 14 games as a true freshman, playing a total of 48 minutes (3.4/game), scoring six points and grabbing 10 rebounds. 

“Last year just taught me that everything’s a process,” he said. “I had to learn quick last year that everything you want isn’t going to come to you instantly, and I felt like carrying that over into this year. I’ve had more patience throughout the year with how things are going on, I know how to maintain composure.”

He’s made a flying leap into the lineup as a sophomore, starting all 17 games for the Rams (10-7, 2-2), averaging 6.4 ppg and 5.4 rpg in 25.3 mpg entering play Saturday. He ended up with 12 points (5-7 FG) and four rebounds in 23 minutes on Saturday, his fifth double-digit scoring outing of the year. 

“I think the first thing you notice about Ferm is he’s the happiest person in the room, most times,” VCU coach Ryan Odom said. “He and [...]  Bryce Crawford, my assistant, battle for ‘1’ and ‘2’ in that regard.”

“I think I edge him out,” Fermin said, flashing his smile. 

VCU wasted no time getting Fermin involved against La Salle. The Rams went to the post on their first few possessions, as he scored the team’s first eight points of the game, then mostly rebounded and defended the rest of the way as his squad pulled out a hard-fought win.

Playing as part of a deep VCU frontcourt that features six players 6-7 and taller, Fermin no longer needs to be ‘the guy’ like he was at Pocono Mt. West, whom he led into the PIAA 6A state tournament as a senior in 2022. The whole PMW squad was there to see him on Saturday, part of a large group there to see Fermin, who he said gave out 29 tickets to friends and family but had many others buy their own tickets to see him play.

“I love coming home, seeing people, people getting to see me, it’s a big deal coming from where I’m from, people see me — my whole high school team was here today, that gives them hope to be able to see that they can come here and do something like this, it’s not that far away from their reach. It’s a surreal moment for me.”

~~~

Catching up with the rest of the action…

— Penn’s women evened their Ivy League record at 1-1 with a 53-39 win at Dartmouth. The Quakers had a pair of double-doubles from Stina Almqvist (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Jordan Obi (11 points, 10 rebounds), plus an 8-point, 7-rebound, 7-assist showing from freshman point guard Mataya Gayle, while holding Dartmouth to 28.8% (17-of-59) overall and 2-of-13 (15.4%) from 3-point range. An 18-8 third quarter flipped the script after Penn trailed 26-24 at halftime.

— La Salle MBB made it exciting but ultimately lost 71-65 to VCU, suffering its fourth defeat in its last five games and dropping to 10-7 (1-3 A-10). The Explorers are definitely playing their best basketball of the last few seasons, but a VCU team with a ton of size was too much for the guard-heavy Explorers, who also suffered from an off shooting night (6-of-23, 26.1%) from downtown. Jhamir Brickus led La Salle with 20 points, while Sean Bairstow impressed for VCU with a 14-point, 12-assist performance. 

— Temple MBB fell to 8-9 overall (1-3 AAC) with a 69-51 loss at North Texas (10-5, 3-0). The new conference foe is one of the best teams in the new-look AAC, currently No. 58 on KenPom and No. 34 defensively, something the Mean Green showed by holding Temple to 30.8% from the floor (16-of-52) and 22.2% from 3-point range (4-of-18) while winning the rebounding battle 38-29. 

— La Salle WBB made it three straight A-10 wins with a 70-64 home triumph over UMass. The Explorers (6-10, 3-2 A-10) have won consecutive games for the first time all season, perhaps a sign that Mountain MacGillivray's young group is figuring some things out. His bench contributed 29 points against the Minutemen, getting 17 from Gabby Turco and 10 from Makayla Miller, plus 14 from freshman Nicole Melious, who connected on a trio of 3-pointers. Trailing by five entering the fourth quarter, La Salle went on an 11-0 run to take control, then went 6-for-6 from the line in the final 37 seconds to seal the win.