City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Wednesday night presents St. Joe’s with its toughest remaining test of the regular season.

The Hawks, who enter the night tied atop the Atlantic 10 with VCU at 13-3, must travel to Rochester, N.Y. to face St. Bonaventure, one of five teams to hand St. Joe’s a loss this season. It’s an important game on both sides.

For the Hawks, two wins this week (they host Duquesne on Saturday), and they’re guaranteed at least a share of the A-10 title. And if VCU loses to either Davidson on Wednesday night or Dayton on Sunday, St. Joe’s could win the title outright.

Meanwhile the Bonnies are fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives. Squarely on the bubble at 20-7 (12-4 Atlantic 10), St. Bonaventure was listed as the second team in Joe Lunardi’s “First Four Out.” A win on Wednesday would certainly boost the Bonnies’ NCAA hopes.

The Bonnies got the best of St. Joe’s in a Feb. 3 meeting at Hagan Arena, winning 83-73. And that’s a victory St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said the Bonnies earned on the road.

“Wednesday night is not about revenge. They beat us. For 40 minutes, they were the better team,” Martelli said. “They were prepared, they played better, executed better and we have to answer it.”

Here’s a breakdown of Wednesday night’s game, by the numbers:

399: Martelli enters Wednesday night’s game with 399 career victories, one win shy of becoming the 124th member of the 400-win club in Division-I men’s college basketball. Martelli has put up a record of 399-270 (.596 winning percentage) in his nearly 21 full seasons with the Hawks, and he did not downplay the importance of getting to the milestone.

“It’ll be pretty cool. Because it’ll be 400 with 25 wins this year,” Martelli said. “That combination would be special. I would think a lot about my family and what they sacrificed, but also what we’ve gotten because of this. I would think about my assistant coaches, who have worked so hard. And I’d think about all those loyal people who send a text, send an email, drop a note, come up to you at a restaurant. And I’m not going to say it’s meaningless. It’s not meaningless. It’s a significant number. I don’t want to wait until after Thursday to get it. I’d like to get it Wednesday night.”

2004: That’s the last year when Martelli and the Hawks won at least 25 games in a season. That was the year they finished the regular season undefeated, went to the Elite 8 and finished 30-2. The 2015-16 St. Joe’s team enters Wednesday 24-5.

10-1: The Hawks’ road record entering their final road game of the season. Their only slip up in a true road game this season came on Feb. 20 at Davidson.

104: There are 104 miles of road between the Bonnies’ usual home court – the on-campus Reilly Center – and where their game against the Hawks will be played, Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y.

31: That’s how many points St. Bonaventure guard Jaylen Adams scored in the teams’ first meeting this season. Adams is the Bonnies’ leading scorer with 18.5 points per game, and he’s averaged 23.0 ppg in his last three contests.

“I think he’s playing better than he played against us,” Martelli said of Adams. “He’s more confident, he’s spreading the ball around, he’s a terrific passer. …He puts other guys in positions where they can score the ball. I think you’re talking about clearly an all-league first team player, who’s playing better than he did in Philadelphia.”