Skip to content
College Sports
Link copied to clipboard

St. Joe's misses shot to advance

The Hawks shoot poorly in loss to St. Bonaventure in second round of Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Saint Joseph's Chris Wilson drives past St. Bonaventure's Denzel Gregg
during the second half. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Saint Joseph's Chris Wilson drives past St. Bonaventure's Denzel Gregg during the second half. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read moreYONG KIM / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

BROOKLYN - Phil Martelli sat down at the podium following last night's game and picked up the final stat sheet.

"It's always, in my humble opinion, been a numeric game," Martelli said as he glanced at the numbers.

They weren't pretty. More specifically, it was the field-goal percentage that had the 20th year coach most perturbed.

St. Joe's shot 25.5 percent from the field, a season-low that included an abysmal 17 percent in the second half in a 60-49 loss to St. Bonaventure in a second-round game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at the Barclays Center.

The Hawks (13-18) led 28-23 at the break, but a second-half drought was more than enough to end their season. St. Joe's made just five of 29 attempts from the floor in the final 20 minutes

First-team All-Atlantic 10 forward DeAndre' Bembry scored 12 points but shot 3-for-14 on the night.

"I was making it very difficult for myself," Bembry said.

Senior point guard Chris Wilson didn't score a point on six field-goal attempts and two free- throw attempts and recorded zero assists - with two turnovers - to end his collegiate career.

Just about the only bright spot for the Hawks was junior forward Isaiah Miles, who led all scorers with 19 points despite shooting 4-for-11. He made three of seven from deep and all eight of his free throws.

St. Joe's led by seven, 34-27, with 16 minutes to go but the Bonnies seized control with a 16-3 run over the next 7 minutes and led the rest of the way.

The Hawks made just one shot from the field in the final 7 minutes, a layup by freshman guard James Demery - who finished with eight points - with 20 seconds left and the result of the game all but final.

"I just think that the basket got smaller," Martelli said. "To begin the second half, we had a nice flow and we missed two layups and missed a foul shot before the first media timeout. And there was a little angst."

The Bonnies (18-12), who shot 40.4 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 15 times, got four players in double figures. Big man Youssou Ndoye led the way with 18 points and eight rebounds. Dion Wright added 15 and nine boards. Marcus Posley scored 13 points while dishing out six assists, and Andell Cumberbatch tacked on 12 points.

Denzel Gregg reeled in a game-high 15 rebounds for St. Bonaventure, which outrebounded the Hawks, 48-33.

St. Joe's loses Wilson and reserve guard Evan Maschmeyer to graduation and returns everyone else.

"The toughest day of the year is tomorrow as a head coach," Martelli said, "because you want to believe that you can fix everything if you just have one more day, and now we don't have one more day."