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Hawks fall to cellar dwellar Fordham

02/15/2015, 5:00pm EST

By Garrett Miley

Garrett Miley (@GWMiley)
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Saint Joseph’s fell to a previously 1-10 in conference play Fordham team, despite starting off with the hot hand against the Rams. Phil Martelli’s team knocked down five of their first seven three point attempts and vaulted out to an early 15-9 advantage over the Rams.

And then the ugliness ensued.

When the Hawks (11-13, 5-7) shooting came crashing back closer to their season average, the Hawks were not able to points on the board against Fordham (7-16, 2-10). Saint Joseph’s shot just 9.5 percent (2-21) from three after the 13:53 mark in the first half of play and scored just 40 more points the rest of the way falling to Fordham 69-55.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Martelli said after the loss. “We had good practice sessions and you know, you want to look at those numbers but it’s decisions. Who should be shooting those balls and when you raise up do you think that they’re going in? We took 11 twos in the first half I think.”

DeAndre Bembry, the Atlantic 10 conference’s leading scorer, finished just above his season average with 18 points (7-18 shooting), but didn’t have his best night overall. Bembry turned the ball over four times and dished out just three assists while also only grabbing one lone rebound after serving as the Hawks’ best rebounder this season.

And while the Hawks shooting performance stands out on the stat sheet as the glaring problem for Saint Joseph’s against Fordham, Martelli pinpoints his finger on another reason.

“It has nothing to do with threes,” Martelli said. “it has everything to do with making an emotional commitment to a game, and for whatever reason we didn’t have anybody make an emotional commitment.

In this game, we just didn’t have the emotional commitment to the game. I don’t know why and I have to find that out. That’s on me.”

Saint Joseph’s took care of the basketball against Fordham, giving it to the Rams just seven times all game, but their inefficient shooting was too much to overcome in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon.

Fordham freshman forward Chris Sengfelder wreaked havoc on offense against Saint Joseph’s. Sengfelder, a native of Leverkusen, Germany, knocked down three 3-pointers in the win over the Hawks, tying his season high. He finished with 15 points on 6-9 shooting from the field while also corralling nine rebounds.

Guard Mandell Thomas played wire-to-wire for head coach Tom Pecora against Saint Joseph’s, scoring both a game and season high 20 points. Thomas was an efficient 7-13 from the floor including an impressive 4-6 from beyond the arc, while also dishing out six assists to lead his team.

Both Martelli and Pecora have command of two of the youngest rosters in the Atlantic 10, and veteran leadership is key to winning conference games in mid to late February. Especially when matching up with an opponent for the second time.

“Playing a team the second time is hard with a group that’s not mentally as strong and emotionally as strong,” Martelli said. “We needed leaders at every spot and we just didn’t have them, and I felt it on the first couple possessions of the game…We weren’t digging out and we weren’t guarding with a fervor.”

The Hawks, with their loss to now 2-10 in the conference Fordham, have lost games to three of the bottom four teams in the Atlantic 10 cellar (Fordham, Saint Louis, and Duquesne).

They’ll try to improve their slot in the Atlantic 10 Tournament over their final six games as they try to make up their one game deficits to St. Bonaventure, La Salle, and Richmond and move out of tenth place in the standings.

That begins with a 6 PM Thursday bout on the road at conference leading Dayton. The Flyers are 13-0 at home and 19-5 overall on the season.