A10: Saint Joseph's Wins Handily
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Everybody but Saint Joseph's has been tested so far in this tournament. The Hawks routed Fordham yesterday and used a 15-0 run midway through the first half to take control against Richmond; they cruised to a 61-47 win. The Hawks improved to 20-11 and moved closer to their first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2004 Elite 8 team.
Joe's shot 22-of-45 for the game and held the Spiders to just 33 percent shooting (8-for-24) in the second half. The Hawks had four in double figures; Richmond's Kevin Anderson scored 16 to tie SJU's Rob Ferguson for the game high. Joe's turned it over 16 times to Richmond's 15, but outrebounded the Spiders, 34-27.
Although the Hawks were considered a slight favorite going into the game, this is the first lower seed to win in the Atlantic 10 tournament so far this year.
The Spiders attempted to shut down the Hawks from the outside; they held SJU to just 6-of-18 from the outside but weren't able to get on track themselves offensively.
Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli began his press conference by commenting on the game planning of his assistant coaches. He then attempted to go off the record during the opening statement of his press conference, making him the second coach I've ever seen attempt to go off the record during a presser (Yale's Joe Jones, Feb. 2002).
He also compared going up against Xavier tomorrow to attempting to ask a really hot girl out on a date. "See, you guys think I'm just into basketball," he said. "I study the whole culture." Asked a question about the team's at-large bid chances, he referred a reporter to ESPN's Joe Lunardi -- also a St. Joe's PR guy -- but said "you might have to pay him" to get the answer. Hey, Jerry Palm's had 'em in as of March 7!
