City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Erik Reynolds II and Saint Joseph’s found their shooting touch at just the right time.

After a few off games from the floor to start the season, the Hawks’ star senior guard caught fire in Brooklyn in St. Joe’s toughest test of the year, a matchup with Texas Tech in the semifinals of the Legends Classic.

Reynolds scored 26 points (8-17 FG, 6-11 3PT) to lead the Hawks to a 78-77 win over the Red Raiders on Thursday night in Brooklyn. 

St. Joe’s (4-1) will face Texas (4-1) in the Legends Classic final on Friday night at the Barclays Center. The Hawks are building up momentum, having beaten Villanova and Penn last week to get back to the Big 5 championship game on Dec. 7. 

They did it despite getting crushed on the glass, 44-28, hitting 12-of-22 (54.5%) from deep to make up for it, a mark St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange knows his team can’t count on to win games in March.

“I was probably the most unhappy winning coach in the history of that locker room,” Lange said. “They had 17 [offensive rebounds, that game is a totally different game if we get a few of those back. Texas is probably licking their chops to get in here and do that to us. The only way to beat it is 3-point shooting. I’m not pleased with that at all, and they know it.”

Reynolds, who’s on pace to surpass Jameer Nelson’s program scoring record, had struggled through the first four games of the season. 

The 6-foot-4 guard from Maryland, who averaged 19.6 ppg as a sophomore and 17.3 as a junior, hitting 38% of his 3-pointers in both seasons, was averaging 14.5 ppg on 24.2% from deep entering Thursday night. That included a 1-for-11 outing from deep in a loss to Central Connecticut State in the second game of the season, a loss that’s suddenly much further back in the rearview mirror. 

There was no sign of that at the Barclays Center, Reynolds taking — and making — his usual assortment of pull-up jumpers, even around traffic, making the Texas Tech defense scramble to keep up with him and opening up shots for his teammates as well.

“My teammates and coaches always give me the confidence to keep shooting,” he said. “Regardless of whether it goes in or not, they always have the confidence in me, and I just roll with that.”

The entire Hawks squad came out firing against Texas Tech (4-1), which was the first time left out of the AP Top 25 poll entering this week. St. Joe’s knocked down its first four 3-pointers, two by Reynolds and two by Rasheer Fleming, hitting eight first-half triples to open up a lead as big as 45-29 with less than two minutes until halftime. 

Texas Tech, led by sophomore forward JT Toppin, was too good to be held down for long. With Toppin dominating the interior to the tune of a 22-point, 18-rebound double-double, the Red Raiders chipped away at the gap. An 8-0 run early in the second half got the edge to three; another one with under eight minutes to go put TTU up 64-62, its first lead since 2-0. 

The teams traded the lead five more times in an exciting closing stretch. Xzayvier Brown, who contributed 20 points including 13-of-13 from the foul line, hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and fast-break layup for St. Joe’s, who still trailed by one with 2:28 to play after a 3-pointer by Texas Tech’s Chance McMillan (17 pts). 

Fleming, who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, had fouled out with 4:07 to play.

St. Joe’s Anthony Finkley (6 pts, 2-2 3PT) hit the biggest shot of his career thus far, a wing triple that put the Hawks up 77-75 with 2:06 to play. After Toppin scored inside to tie it up with 1:07 left, and the teams traded missed 3-pointers, St. Joe’s Justice Ajogbor was fouled on a rebound with 13 seconds left. The career 53.8% foul shooter made the second of two, and the Hawks forced a missed jumper in the line at the buzzer to hold on.

“I like how we ended, because you can stop playing to win and be fearful of an outcome, and you have everything against you,” Lange said. “They’re making shots, Rasheer fouls out, Justice misses a free throw, they call timeout to freeze him. I liked the grit and resilience of the team.”

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In other Big 5 action:

MBB: UC San Diego 72, La Salle 67

A rough shooting day from the outside was the driving force behind the Explorers’ first loss of the year in the opening round of the Boardwalk Battle in Daytona Beach (Fl.). La Salle (4-1) was just 7-of-24 (29.2%) from the 3-point arc and just 18-of-31 (58.1%) from the free-throw line, on top of committing 15 turnovers. 

Corey McKeithan led La Salle with 21 points (6-15 FG, 4-11 3PT), and Jahlil White added 13 (5-9 FG, 1-2 3PT) with seven rebounds, though the two also split eight turnovers. The Explorers were within one point with 4:53 remaining, but back-to-back 3-pointers by UC San Diego (3-2) got the Tritons the margin they needed to finish it off. 

La Salle will face Illinois Chicago (3-2) on Friday at 11:00 AM in a consolation game. 

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WBB: UC Irvine 72, Penn 68 (OT)

A foul on Stina Almqvist with five seconds left in regulation cost Penn dearly, as UC Irvine was able to force overtime and pull out the win at the Palestra.Almqvist fouled Hunter Hernandez, which was the fifth foul for the Penn senior; Hernandez made the second of two foul shots to send the game to overtime, where the Quakers couldn’t hold on without their leading scorer. 

Almqvist finished with 17 points and nine rebounds for the Quakers, who fell to 3-3 as they took their third consecutive defeat. Freshman Katie Collins led the way with 18 points and seven rebounds, the freshman post from Manasquan (N.J.) continuing an impressive start to her collegiate career. Ashna Tambe added 10 for Penn, which plays D-III Immaculata on Tuesday before going down to Ft. Myers (Fl.) next week for a pair of games against Chattanooga and Cal Baptist.