St. Joseph's defeats Fordham, 80-62

In another measure of progress, St. Joseph's basketball team has exceeded its win total of last year.

And the year before that.

After earning 11 wins in each of the last two seasons, the Hawks improved to 12-5 with Wednesday's 80-62 win over Fordham in an Atlantic Ten matchup at Hagan Arena.

The Hawks are now 2-1 in the A-10, while Fordham fell to 7-9 overall and 0-3 in the conference.

Despite the win, this was far from an artistic success. St. Joe's went through sustained periods of inconsistency, but Fordham simply struggled to score. And both teams had trouble from the foul line. St. Joseph's shot 18 for 32 and Fordham was 13 for 26.

Sophomore guard Langston Galloway led St. Joseph's with 30 points,  tying a career high .

St. Joe's was coming off its first home loss, Saturday's 57-52 defeat to Charlotte. In that game, Galloway scored just six points and had only seven field-goal attempts.

Galloway, who entered the game averaging 15.5 points, reverted to form in the first half, scoring 17 points as the Hawks took a 34-24 lead. Had the Hawks shot better than 5 for 13 from the foul line, the lead would have been greater.

Galloway, who missed all four of his shots from beyond the arc against Charlotte, was 5 for 6 from three-point range in the first half on Wednesday.

It's a good thing he was on because other than teammate Daryus Quarles, who had eight points, the Hawks appeared out of sync.

In fact, Carl Jones, whose 18.4 scoring average prior to the game led the A-10, was held scoreless, going 0 for 3 from the field. Jones scored 11 points in the second half.

This was a reunion of sorts for St. Joseph's sophomore Halil Kanacevic and Fordham head coach Tom Pecora. In 2009-10, Kanacevic played for Pecora as a freshman at Hofstra.

Pecora took the Fordham job after that season, and Kanacevic transferred to St. Joseph's and had to sit out last season.

While he was looking to make a quick impression, Kanacevic picked up two quick fouls in the first three minutes and was exiled to the bench for the rest of the half. He finished with eight points and eight assists.

 There were some positives for the Hawks, who shot 50 percent from beyond the arc.

"Rebounding is still a concern, but if we shoot 12 for 24 from the three-point line, we are going to be hard to beat," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said.

The Hawks had 24 assists on their 25 field goals, which also impressed Martelli.