City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Saint Joseph’s is used to having the best player on the court in Atlantic 10 games, in the form of DeAndre’ Bembry.

The Hawks’ junior wing, a future NBA draft selection, has been one of the best all-around talents in the country, averaging nearly 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists per contest through St. Joe’s first 21 games.

Against St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night, Jaylen Adams was better.

The Hawks, who came in winners in 14 of their last 15, had no answer for the Bonnies’ sophomore guard, who dropped a career-high 31 points to lead his team to an 83-73 upset at Hagan Arena.

“I just told my team the better team won tonight,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said after his team saw its seven-game winning streak snapped. “It had nothing to do with not playing hard, or being full of ourselves; we didn’t play well enough, and the other team played better than us tonight.”

Adams’ scoring was only part of a terrific all-around game for the 6-foot-1 guard, who had seven assists against one turnover while shooting 10-of-21 from the floor and 6-of-12 from 3-point range.

The silky smooth combo guard was in the right place at the right time on nearly every possession, whether it was looking for his shot or finding open teammates. Coming out of the same Mt. St. Joseph’s (Md.) program that also was home to current ‘Nova sophomore Phil Booth, Adams averaged 10.0 ppg last year but has stepped that up to nearly 18 ppg this season.

“Our guys have a lot of confidence in him,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “When he has the ball, you can tell he’s in control, he knows what he’s doing. He’s getting better every game, and he leads us. When your point guard is playing as well as he played tonight, you’re going to have a very good shot at winning.”

That was just part of an excellent night in general for St. Bonaventure from beyond the arc. The Bonnies (14-6, 6-3 A-10) set new season highs in makes (13) and attempts (34), doing it against a St. Joe’s team that came into the evening best in the A-10 in 3-point defense at just 29.0 percent.

“I told our guys we can’t fall in love with the ‘3,’ but if they’re open, you’ve got to shoot them,” Schmidt said. “We were open, and we have good shooters, guys with confidence, and we knocked most of them down.”

Martelli didn’t blame Saint Joseph’s effort for its struggles defending the 3-point arc, but there were clearly a few defensive lapses that led to too many open looks for Bonaventure--and Adams wasn’t the only one hitting.

Idris Taqqee, who entered play averaging 3.6 ppg, was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc for his 13 points. Dion Wright (two), Marcus Posley and Nelson Caputo added the other four.

“The kid Taqqee being 3-for-4 is unusual, he’s not one that we took into account...Adams’ were from deeper than we anticipated,” Martelli said. “But we did relax and we didn’t hit them with a more physical presence on that ball.”

Wright, a senior forward, added a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds; Posely finished with 11 to round out the quartet in double figures.

While SBU was seeing success from beyond the arc, St. Joe’s (18-4, 7-2) struggled to execute right around the rim.

The Hawks missed several layups throughout the game, including a few that cost them at a crucial time.

After entering the half down seven, St. Joe’s was able to cut the lead to as little a two in the first five minutes of the second half. But back-to-back missed layups from freshman forward Pierfrancesco Oliva and sophomore guard Shavar Newkirk on the same possession led to SBU stretching their lead back out to eight with under 12 minutes to play.

“It’s like a punch to the gut, we had them, we had a little run going and then the missed layup I feel like took the wind out of the gym,” senior forward Isaiah Miles said. “I feel like if we finish that play, we could have a chance but that just slowed down our momentum.”

Adams then hit the daggers down the stretch, with three 3-pointers in a two-minute span that took the lead from seven to 13.

The first Adams dagger came with just over seven minutes to play when ITaqqee stole the ball from James Demery and found Adams open. Almost a minute later, Adams hit another long ball to give the Bonnies a double-digit lead.

The last one was another lapse by the St. Joe’s defense, as Adams was left wide open in the far corner for a trey that smoothly splashed through to make it 73-60 with 5:31 left.

“You’re trying to coach, you don’t see why they’re open,” Schmidt said. “But I’m glad he was open.”

Bembry, who finished with 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds, tried to get St. Joe’s back into it, cutting the deficit to 11 with just under three minutes left. But the Hawks couldn’t get within single digits, giving up a three-point play to Adams with 1:29 remaining; two more Adams foul shots 30 seconds later sealed it.

To try and regain momentum, St. Joe’s will have to do so on the road--where it currently has a 7-0 record, including 4-0 in league play. The Hawks travel to New York City on Saturday to take on Fordham before a trip down to George Washington next Wednesday.