Reynolds leads the way as St. Joseph’s holds off Fordham, 72-69

While the Hawk may never die, he hasn’t exactly been living the good life the past few seasons.

But after going a sorry 11-42 the past two years under Billy Lange, at least Saint Joseph’s was nearly keeping its head above water this season heading into today’s matinee vs. Fordham at Hagan Arena with a 9-10 record.

Make that 10-11 (4-6 Atlantic 10) as the Hawks were able to overcome some first-half shooting woes and climb their way out of an early nine-point deficit, before taking a nine-point lead of their own with 2 minutes, 3 seconds remaining. That’s when turnovers and defensive breakdowns nearly proved costly, as Fordham closed within two points in the final 42.9 seconds, before St. Joseph’s made just enough free throws to survive, ­72-69.

“We played great,” Lange said. “We have some stuff to clean up at the end that just takes a second layer of execution. It’s a hard part to be in when you have a team that is unsure how to continue to close games.

" I think it’s learning and the confidence to make good decisions and be OK with the results. But Fordham is playing good basketball. Forget results, they’re playing as good as any team in the league   So it’s a really good win for us.”

Erik Reynolds led the way for the Hawks with a career-high 23 points, followed by Jordan Hall and Ejike Obinna with 17 and 15 points, respectively. Cameron Brown added 12.

Darius Quisenberry topped Fordham (10-11, 3-5) with 19 points, but missed a desperation trey at the buzzer that would’ve forced overtime.. The Rams made just 3 of 21 three-pointers.

Fordham seemed to be in command early before Reynolds got the St. Joe’s wheels in motion, Down 23-14 with 5:36 left in the half, his three-pointer from the wing seemed to jump start the Hawks. Brown and Hall promptly buried threes of their own, as St. Joe’s knocked down five of its eight shots from beyond the arc, Brown’s corner trey giving them a 31-30 halftime lead.

In the second half whenever Fordham seemed poised to make a run, Reynolds had the answer. After the Rams closed to within 50-48 with 8:03 left, he responded with a corner three, followed by a baseline jumper to push the lead to 55-48 with 5:16 remaining.

Reynolds then sank four straight free throws down the stretch to help wrap it up, giving the Hawks their third win in the last nine games.

“Just the confidence everybody’s showing it in me,” Reynolds said, “which allows me to do what I can do and not be so nervous,  I’m able to read defenses better, try to slow my  mind down .

After scoring just three points in the first half, Obinna took over after intermission. The 6-foot-10 Nigerian graduate student who played four seasons at Vanderbilt. scored five quick baskets on an array of dunks and post moves, boosting the Hawks’ narrow halftime margin to 44-36.

Then it was Reynolds turn.

While their mentor, Villanova’s Jay Wright, was otherwise occupied about 10 miles away facing Connecticut, this game featured a battle between two of his former assistants.

Saint Joseph’s Billy Lange actually had two stints on the Main Line, serving as ‘Nova’s director of basketball operations from 2001-04, before returning in 2011 following a seven-year stint as head coach at Navy. He then left in 2013 to join Brett Brown’s Sixers’ staff for six years, before taking over on Hawk Hill from Phil Martelli in 2019.

As Lange was going out the door, Kyle Neptune came in, serving by Wright’s side for eight years —including, of course, those two national championship teams in 2016 and 2018. But the chance to run his own program was something Neptune couldn’t resist, landing him to The Bronx this season.

“I’ve known Kyle for years and coached against him when he played at Lehigh,” Lange said. “That program is going to take off because they’re going to play very hard.  All the guys who come up under Jay, we have tremendous respect for each other. We understand building a program is more of a priority than one single game.”