City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)

St. Joseph’s picked up its third win at Hagan Arena in the last six days, handily beating Buffalo, 89-67, Wednesday night.

The Hawks improved to 3-0 and Isaiah Miles scored 24 points – 16 in the first half. DeAndre Bembry had a quiet game by his standards, but scored his 1,000th career point with a first-half layup. Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the game:

At First…
This one was all St. Joe’s. Buffalo was up 5-2 early with the Hawks missing some early jumpers, but then the home team went on a 17-0 run to make it 19-5. St. Joe’s did this without Bembry scoring a point or attempting a shot. The Bulls never got their deficit in single digits again after the St. Joe’s spurt, and Buffalo shot just 24.3 percent from the field in the first half.

Turning point…
Aaron Brown took a rebound coast-to-coast weaving through defenders and finishing with a left-handed slam with about eight minutes left in the first half. The dunk made it 28-15, and while it was not necessarily a big change of momentum, it brought the crowd to its feet and was the exclamation point on a 10-minute run that put St. Joe’s in command of the game.

Standout stars…
Miles tied a career-best with a team-high 24 points. James Demery and Lamarr Kimble both also had their best games of the young season. Demery gave St. Joe’s 13 points off the bench, giving the team a 3-pointer on his first possession. Kimble, a freshman from Neumann-Goretti, looked as his most comfortable on Wednesday and added nine points and four assists.

Noteworthy numbers…
Bembry got to the 1,000-point plateau in just his 68th game in a St. Joe’s uniform. It didn’t take him a while to get there in terms of games, but did take him a while on Wednesday night to find the bottom of the basket. Bembry was not a large part of the offense early and did not score his first points until the 10:13 mark of the first half.

Up next…
St. Joe’s (3-0) vs. Florida (11/21)
Buffalo (1-2) vs. North Carolina A&T (11/21)