City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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St. Joseph’s completely dismantled Fordham on Saturday afternoon.

The Hawks never trailed, bullied the Rams on the glass, allowed just five points in the first 11 minutes of the second half and were able to pull out their starters with six minutes remaining. The final score was 80-55, and it wasn’t even that close.

It was arguably the best all-around performance the team, which is now 14-3 and 4-1 in the Atlantic 10, has had all season. It certainly looks like the Hawks – who were picked to finish seventh in the A10 – are hitting their stride near the season’s midway point.

And Phil Martelli thinks the Hawks' best basketball is still ahead of them.

“I don’t really compare (games). But I will say this: I think our best performance is still out there. I don’t think we played to our peak performance yet,” the 21st-year head coach said. “…I think that there’s a lot in this group. The thing I like the most that I think is growing is team confidence. They’re going to get through it, they’re going to give you a little bit more.”

St. Joe’s did not waste much time taking care of Fordham. The team built an early 14-4 lead and looked in control of the game from the opening tip in front of a sold out crowd of 4,200 that featured dozens of former players.

The Hawks led 38-26 at halftime with a good portion of those points coming from two areas: backdoor cuts and the offensive glass. St. Joe’s exploited a Fordham (10-6, 1-4 Atlantic 10) team that was aggressive on the perimeter with a handful of back cuts that resulted in layups or dunks – something Martelli credited to assistant coach David Duda’s scouting.

Martelli thought the backdoor would be open for his team. The offensive boards, on the other hand, the Hawks earned those themselves. They had 14 in the game – nine in the first half – which resulted in 16 second chance points, and the home side held a 41-27 rebounding edge in the game.

“The back cuts were there. The offensive glass I wasn’t so sure of because (Fordham forwards Ryan) Roomes and (Chris) Sengfelder are big strong guys in there,” Martelli said. “But certainly the back cuts.”

DeAndre’ Bembry was the beneficiary of a few of those cuts, and the junior stuffed the stat sheet with a 26-point, 12-rebound showing. He was one of five St. Joe’s players in double digits (Aaron Brown was second in scoring with 12 points), and all 16 of the team’s players in uniform saw the court.

That happened because St. Joe’s totally ran away with the game in the second half, mostly due to defense. Fordham was held to just five points in the first 11 minutes out of the intermission, and the Hawks made the game laughable in that span, growing a 61-31 lead.

“First half I thought there were missed possessions,” Martelli said. “We had a missed dunk, we were 7-for-13 from the foul line. And I thought in the second half, they had about (five) points in the first 10 minutes in the half. So I was really pleased defensively.”

Fordham shot 41.1 percent in the game but was plagued by 15 turnovers and the inability to get second looks on the offensive glass. St. Joe’s, meanwhile shot 48.3 percent and attempted 24 free throws to the Rams’ five.

The Hawks have now won nine of their last 10 games, the only slipup coming against VCU earlier this month, and are sitting right near the top of the Atlantic 10. Their next two contests both come on the road, though they don’t have to leave Philadelphia. And if Saturday was any indication, a home court advantage might not do much for Penn or La Salle.

“I feel like we’re not doing anything different than we did since the first game,” Bembry said. “We’re just trying to stick to our game, which is get stops on defense and play our offense. We did that today, we got a lot of open looks, backdoor cuts and we ran with it today for once.”