City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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Things are going fairly well up on City Ave for the Saint Joseph’s Hawks.

For the first time since the 2011-12 season the Hawks will enter Atlantic 10 conference play with 10 wins on their resume as they defeated Maryland Eastern Shore 78-68 on Tuesday evening.

Though that is not all that there is to be excited about up on Hawk Hill: the team just picked up their sixth consecutive win, their longest win streak in two seasons.

However, in the win Tuesday night, St. Joe’s struggled at times against what looked like, on paper, an inferior opponent in UMES.

“A lot of people expected us to blow them out because of their record, being 3-10,” senior Isaiah Miles said. “We kind of slacked off and they are a really really good team. We should have came out harder, but after the second half we definitely picked it up. They are a high-caliber team.”

St. Joe’s led by as many as 14 in the first half, and maintained a double digit lead for a majority of the half, and certainly looked to be a play or two away from breaking the game open.

That would never happen though. UMES used a 13-3 run to end the first half and head to the locker rooms down by only three. 

St. Joe’s did look to be the better team all game though, never letting UMES closer than three points after the score was 6-4 in the opening minutes of the game.

“This game didn’t have to be as close as it was,” junior DeAndre’ Bembry said. “But that is what we have practice for. So tomorrow, and after that we will have to work at it and get better.”

Bembry certainly did his part to help St. Joe’s earn the win, finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds. He was helped by Miles who chimed in 17 points of his own, just one game after he poured in 36 in a win over Virginia Tech.

“We are playing better,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said. “Learning from losing has never been a big thing for me, I would rather learn from winning.”

And St. Joe’s continues to win, sitting at 10-2, and having received two votes in this weeks AP Top-25, St. Joe’s finds themselves in a pretty good place after finishing the non-conference slate.

That does not matter for Martelli and his Hawks, the Atlantic 10 presents a whole new set of challenges.

“There aren’t celebrations over 10-2,” Martelli said. “There is a lot of work to be done and when that ball goes into the air Saturday at 12:30 we are going to be 0-0 and Richmond is going to be 0-0.”

The Atlantic 10 sent six teams, including St. Joe’s, to the 2014 NCAA tournament, the second most of any conference. Last season, they sent just three teams and have several teams that appear to be primed for a NCAA tournament bid this season.

The conference is deep and loaded with talent, it is no wonder the Hawks are eager to get started with league-play.

“You make your statement, always at St. Joseph’s, in the Atlantic 10,” Martelli said. “So let’s go. We have 18 chances to make our statement.”

St. Joe’s first chance comes, as mentioned, at Richmond on Saturday at 12:30. Should the Hawks win, their streak will stretch to seven consecutive victories, their most since the 2008-09 season.

The success this season at St. Joe’s is a far cry from last year’s 13-18 finish, a team that finished 10th in the A10 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament.

“We just have so many more options this season than we did last season,” Miles said. “Everyone doing their part. We just fit so well together, if one guy is off, we have so many more pieces that can pick it up.”

The Hawks might only use an eight man rotation, but the talent of those eight players is tremendous. Any one of the players can cause opposing team’s problems. On Tuesday night, the three St. Joe’s bench players combined to score 24 of the Hawks’ 78 points, as well as 13 rebounds and six assists.

"I feel like we are a great team," sophomore forward James Demery said. "If we do what we are supposed to do, then we will be great in the league."