On Saturday, I was on hand along with a sellout growd for the Big 5 game between St. Joe's and La Salle. The game wasn't on TV, so I figured I'd try to do some liveblogging the way I did for the Penn-St. Joe's game a few weeks back. As with that post, it wasn't just game commentary. There was some some of that, but I focused on the atmosphere -- the rollouts, chants, and other fun stuff like that.
To read the coverage as it happened, click the link below. Then jump to the bottom of the page and read upwards.
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Here's the box score. Of note: 10 total assists for La Salle, which shot 1-12 from 3. The Explorers had 11 turnovers. St. Joe's had 15 assists and 17 turnovers, and shot an even 50 percent from the field on the night (25-50). Pat Calathes led all scorers with 15. Ahmand Nivins, the birthday boy, had 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
FINAL SCORE: St. Joe's 72, La Salle 50, as Artur Surov gets a standing ovation from the St. Hawks fans for a layup with three seconds to go.
0:30 2nd: The final media timeout finally comes with only 30 seconds to play. And with it, the final St. Joe's rollout, as usual: "THE HAWK WILL NEVER DIE."
4:25 2nd: Pat Calathes hits a jumper off the backboard, then two free throws a few second later to push the score to 63-40, the Hawks' biggest lead of the day.
6:46 2nd: Quote of the day from friend of the blog and veteran AP college hoops writer Jack Scheuer: "St. Joe's has one less rollout than La Sale has assists." The scores is 7-6, if you're keeping track at home. The St. Joe's fans are bored, and have started singing "We've lost that loving feeling..." You know the song.
7:43 2nd: Media timeout. It's 54-37 St. Joe's and some La Salle fans are already on the way out the door. Yet another St. Joe's rollout. "La Salle : Future MAAC Champs," this time with everything but "MAAC" in red instead of black. That's the sixth St. Joe's rollout today, and I would think there's at least one more coming. Geez.
11:32 2nd: A Sherman Diaz layup makes it 52-35. Phil Martelli rather loudly calls timeout. St. Joe's is trying to unfurl a rollout but the paint didn't quite dry before it got rolled up, so it's getting stuck a few times on the way across the student section. Once it's finally out, the whole thing reads "La Salle can't cut it in the A-10... (with "A-10..." in red) ... or the A-12 (with A-12 in red)." The students chant "A-10 losers." I think Richmond officially gets that title for being in last place, don't they?
13:02 2nd: A three by Pat Calathes pushes the Hawks' lead to 52-32. Villanova beat Seton Hall, 78-69, which should all but assure the Wildcats a place in the NCAA Tournament barring a huge collapse. The bigger result, though, is Old Dominion's 79-63 home win over Virginia Commonwealth. Pomeroy called it in ODU's favor coming in, but only put a 40 percent probability on it. And he certainly didn't have the Monarchs winning by 16.
15:56 2nd: Media timeout with the Hawks up 47-25. Another St. Joe's rollout: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SLIM!" That would be Ahmad Nivins, who turns 20 today. The students wait until the La Salle band stops playing, then sing "Happy Birthday." A few seconds later, they start chanting "Slim! Slim! Slim!"
16:31 2nd: A three from the left corner by Garrett Williamson puts the Hawks "up by 20," as the St. Joe's student section points out.
18:29 2nd: Darnell harris hits a 3, La Salle's first made 3 in nine attempts.
Some halftime stats: St. Joe's shot 11-21 from the field (52.4 percent), 3-8 from 3 and 4-6 from the line. 20 rebounds overall, 7 on offense and 6 on defense. 8 assists, 7 turnovers, 1 block and 2 steals.
La Salle shot 7-25 from the field (28.0 percent), 0-of-7 from 3 and 0-2 from the line. It's been a while since I've seen a team not make a three in a half. 10 rebounds overall, 6 on offense and 4 on defense. Yes, that means St. Joe's got more boards at its end than La Salle did. 3 assists, 4 turnovers, no blocks and 3 steals.
HALFTIME: Mike St. John deflects a St. Joe's inbounds pass to Paul Johnson, who can't get a good shot off. It falls way short to D.J. Rivera, whose fling is way off. 37-19 St. Joe's at the horn.
2:43 1st: Calathes throws a pass inside to Nivins which all of a sudden becomes a quite authoritative slam dunk. 33-14 St. Joe's. Up at the Meadowlands, Villanova is leading Seton hall 57-50.
3:46 1st: Green takes a big step and runs right into a charge. Media timeout and it's 29-14 Hawks. Another St. Joe's rollout: "La Salle making it to A.C. (with the A.C. in red): NOT a Good Bet!" For recreational purposes only, of course.
7:18 1st: Media timeout and it's 23-12 St. Joe's.
8:41 1st: La Salle makes a bit of a run to cut the score to 17-12, but Rob Ferguson answers with a 3 to make it 20-12.
10:56 1st: Timeout La Salle, as St. Joe's goes to 17-8 on a jumper by D.J. Rivera.
11:56 1st: Another media timeout and it's 15-8. At halfcourt, La Salle AD Tom Brennan and Big 5 do-it-all person Meghann Schulte hold a small ceremony for Jen Zenszer, the former La Salle women's player who was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame this year. Another St. Joe's rollout: "La Salle: Please EXPLORE (with the capitalized word in red) Other Conferences." The La Salle student section responds "No one's laughing." It is true that the Explorers haven't beaten the Hawks since 2001.
15:40 1st: At the first media timeout, it's 9-6 St. Joe's. Rodney Green just fouled Nivins going up and John Giannini was irate, pointing and shouting at some combination of those two and the ref. Here comes a St. Joe's rollout: "Dr. John: There's NO CURE for this team." I'm not so sure about that. Time heals all wounds, or so they say, and Giannini's young players have plenty of it left to go in their college careers.
17:57 1st: After St. Joe's gets out to a 4-0 lead, La Salle comes back and ties the game on a breakaway slam by Rodney Green.
The starting lineups:
St. Joe's
G 13 Darren Govins
G 23 Garrett Williamson
F 52 Rob Ferguson
F 34 Ahmad Nivins
F 12 Pat Calathes
La Salle
G 10 Rodney Green
G 11 Darnell Harris
G 34 Ruben Guillandeaux
F 12 Yves Mekong Mbala
F 42 Mike St. John
1:17 to go before tip: The coaches come out and are all wearing white sneakers as part of their Coaches vs. Cancer campaign. It's La Salle's home game, but there are a lot of Hawks fans here.
