Reply To: Re: St. Joseph's

[LU65Participant]

It was a game of runs – first 10, then 7, then 11 but the one we couldn’t recover from was SJU’s 15-0 spurt midway thru the second half. This, after we had built up a 7 point lead with 8:47 to go. In the next 4 1/2 minutes of playing time, the Hawks hit seven field goals (one from 3 and a slam dunk thrown in for extra measure) while we missed what had to be an equal number and a couple with open looks. During that stretch we looked listless and to make matters worse we reverted to man coverage after what had been an effective 3-4 minutes of zone play. Even the SJU announcers were surprised at the move. It cost us. But that alone didn’t lose the game. It was reckless ball handling (20 turnovers) and the ineffective shooting by two of our senior co-captains: Hall and Carrington. I’m sure no one feels worse than they do after such an outing but we can’t have our stud center/forward convert only 33% (4 of 12) of his shots from point blank range. And, to top it off he hit two of those 4 made FGs in the first 61 seconds of the game! As for Marquis, going 1 for 6 won’t cut it either. One rebound and 4 assists aren’t Marquis – the preseason player of the year – either. Misery loves company as our 2 guards had their problems, as well. CJ continued his funk connecting on only 2 of 11 attempts. Granted, he scored 10 but we need the majority of his points coming from the field and not the free throw line. Another disappointment on Sunday was Keefer off the bench. It’s hard to throw up an "air ball" from the lane but he did. He looked lost in his 10 minutes on the court going 1 for 4 with 0 boards and 1 turnover. If it weren’t for Buchberger, Knutson and Ojo, combining for 38 points, things could have been worse. As it was, we were in it and could have – should have won the game. Well, maybe. But, Saragin had it about right …. SJU-8. Anyway, the game is behind us and in the long run it means little. Let’s hope a lesson or two was learned. I’d look for the team to come out flying against Marist on Tuesday.