City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Lamarr Kimble is no stranger to the importance of the Big 5.

The Neumann-Goretti graduate has called Philadelphia home for his entire life and choosing to play his college basketball at Saint Joseph’s shows how much the city league means to the 6-foot floor general.

“Born and raised here. All the Big 5 schools here, all the tradition,” Kimble said. “Great atmosphere every time, you know it’s going to be a sold out crowd every time you play a Big 5 game.”

Now he's putting himself in Big 5 lore.

With 15 seconds left and his squad trailing by a point, Kimble drilled a jumper from the elbow to propel St. Joe’s to a 73-72 win over La Salle at Hagan Arena.

“I just tried to get to my spot and I was able to get the defender off balance a little bit,” Kimble said. “I just tried to make sure my technique was good and I was disciplined on my shot and it fell down for me.”

With the game on the line is when Kimble wants the ball in his hands the most, as the sophomore guard has been great in crunch time for St. Joe’s (10-10, 3-5 Atlantic 10) all season long.

“I’m just happy for our team being able to get the win. In terms of me, I live for that type of moment. To be able to get that shot and make it,” Kimble said. “I’m going to thrive in that moment.”

Kimble is no stranger to playing well against city foes, as the sophomore tri-captain is averaging 16 points per contest for the Hawks in their battles with Big 5 foes this season.

“He is a kid that loves the Philadelphia games,” St. Joe’s head coach Phil Martelli said. “You go over his year and a half, he loves the Philadelphia games. He played a great game against Penn last week and he made a big shot here.”

Kimble’s game-winner was one of the few bright spots in the second half for the Hawks, as they allowed their eight-point halftime lead to slip away in the opening eight minutes of the half, and then saw La Salle (11-8, 5-3 Atlantic 10) go up by as large as six before clawing their way back into the contest.

Although Kimble’s jumper ended up being the deciding factor in the contest, Jordan Price had a look at a layup for the win just before time expired that rattled in and out and ultimately secured the win for St. Joe’s.

“When we got down there, whatever that was, five or six, we stayed connected, they stayed together despite the foul trouble,” Martelli said. “I just told the team, we were the home team, the ball didn’t go in for them on the last play.”

Foul trouble was an issue for St. Joe’s in the second half, as it entered the bonus with just under 12 minutes left to play and had five key players with three or more fouls on the court in the late going.

Chris Clover didn’t let the foul trouble bother him though, as the 6-foot-3 sophomore finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting while also dishing out a team-best five assists before fouling out with just over three minutes to play.

Clover’s 21 are a new career-high for the St. Joseph’s Prep graduate, surpassing his previous career-best of 11, which he matched before a quarter of the game had even been played.

“There was confidence and he’s been practicing better,” Martelli said of Clover, who broke into the starting lineup following Shavar Newkirk’s ACL tear, which occurred back on December 30th. “He shot with confidence. That’s what I want, I just want somebody to step up like they think the ball is going in.”

Joining Kimble and Clover in double figures for St. Joe’s were reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week Charlie Brown, who finished with 15, and James Demery, who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

For La Salle, this loss puts the Explorers on a three-game losing skid following losses to VCU and Penn.

After an abysmal first half where the Explorers only scored 29 points, La Salle battled back to take the lead before late turnovers and fouls would plague the team from 20th and Olney.

“We were scoring, we had the lead, and then we had some really bad turnovers that led to baskets on their end and when we really needed a stop, we just had some foolish fouls,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said.

Leading the way for La Salle was Price, who finished with 21 points, Amar Stukes, who scored 16 while also dealing out five assists, and B.J. Johnson, who scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Although La Salle’s fate hasn’t been what it hopes for in its recent contests, the emergence of Stukes is a bright spot for the Explorers.

After averaging 6.1 points per game in La Salle’s first 13 contests this season, Stukes has more than double his scoring efforts the last six games, where he is averaging 12.3 points per outing.

“He’s just gotten a lot more confident and a lot more aggressive and I’m really proud of him for doing that,” Giannini said.  “He sees how good he can be and he’s willing to take some risks and not be too hard on himself. He was too humble and too critical early in his career but he’s doing what we always knew he could do right now.”

After putting on a show for those in attendance on Saturday night, these two teams will go to battle again on February 18th at Tom Gola Arena in their “official” Big 5 matchup for this season. If Saturday’s contest is any indication of what is in store for when these squads square off, the contest three weeks from now will surely be a treat.