The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team (15-3; 4-1 A-10) will visit city rival La Salle (5-11; 1-4) on Sunday, January 24, in an Atlantic 10 Conference game at 5 p.m. at Gola Arena. This game was rescheduled due to the winter storm that is forecast to impact the area on Saturday.
The game will be televised on the American Sports Network and its affiliates nationwide, including The Comcast Network in Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and CSN Chicago Plus. For a complete list of the American Sports Network stations, click here.
The Saint Joseph's Sports Network will also carry the broadcast on 990 AM and with audio streaming on SJUHawks.com.
ARENA: Tom Gola Arena (3,400)
TELEVISION: ASN/TCN (Dave Armstrong, Tim Scarborough)
RADIO: WNTP 990 AM (Matt Martucci, Joe Lunardi)
VIDEO STREAMING: A-10 Network WATCH
AUDIO STREAMING: SJUHawks.com LISTEN
SJU STREAK: 4 wins
HAWKS' NEXT GAME: January 27 vs. Massachusetts, 7 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• DeAndre' Bembry led Saint Joseph's to a 75-60 win over Penn in a Big 5 doubleheader on Wednesday night. Aaron Brown scored 15 points, Isaiah Miles had 13 points and nine rebounds and Shavar Newkirk tallied 11 points. Lamarr Kimble added eight points and six assists.
• SJU has won four in a row and 11 of the last 12 games. With 15 victories, Saint Joseph's has surpassed last year's win total (13). The Hawks finished the non-conference portion of the schedule with an 11-2 record.
• Saint Joseph's RPI is 33rd, the second best in the A-10 behind Dayton (11).
• Today's game is an Atlantic 10 matchup only and does not count in the Big 5 standings - the contest at SJU on Feb. 13 will be the Big 5 game.
SNOW GAME: This marks the second time in recent years that the weather has caused the SJU-La Salle game to be rescheduled. The last came in 2010-11 when it was scheduled for Jan. 26 at The Palestra but ended up being played on Jan. 27. La Salle won that game, 76-72.
KEY TO THE CITY: Saint Joseph's is 3-1 against Philadelphia teams this year, beating Drexel, Temple and Penn and losing to Villanova. This game will not count in the Big 5 standings, however, as the Feb. 13 meeting at Hagan Arena will be the City Series game.
POINT TAKEN: Shavar Newkirk and Lamarr Kimble have been splitting time as the Hawks' point guards and Phil Martelli is happy with the play of the duo. “The competition is so healthy between the two of them. In this situation the point guards get the key to the house. Fresh (Kimble) is making a lot of progress and the two of them root for each other, which is nice to see. They're not competing any longer. It's now about 'us', it's not about 'them'. In the win over Penn, the duo combined for 19 points (11 by Newkirk) and 11 assists (6 by Kimble) while combining to shoot 6-for-11 from the field.
WORKING LATE: The 9:30 p.m. start time for the Penn game didn't affect the Hawks. They fell behind in the first three minutes, 8-3, but after a 10-2 run, took the lead for good at the 14:31 mark. SJU led by as many as 19 points in the contest. DeAndre' Bembry again led SJU with 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
THE THROWBACK'S THROWBACK: More than 30 former SJU players witnessed the win over Fordham and they got to see DeAndre' Bembry at his best. The junior posted 26 points and 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double. Phil Martelli felt that Bembry would've fit in with all of those former Hawks, saying, “DeAndre' plays like an old guy. He could play with any one of those guys. He's a throwback's throwback. He's gifted. They could've called him out for playing in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, because he has an old-school game.”
RETURN TO ACTION: Pierfrancesco Oliva returned to action vs. Penn after missing two games (George Mason, Fordham) with an ankle injury suffered in practice on Jan. 12. Oliva had five rebounds and two steals in his return. The freshman's parents are currently visiting from Italy, and the Penn game was the first time they've seen him play for the Hawks.
OFF THE BENCH: James Demery is proving to be one of the more valuable “sixth men” in the Atlantic 10. He's scored double figures in 10 games this season while playing just over 22 minutes per game. Demery has also been one of the Hawks' best three-point shooters during A-10 play, hitting 62.5 percent of his long-range shots, to rank second in the league in three-point percentage.
COMING CLOSE: DeAndre' Bembry has come close to notching a triple-double on numerous occasions this year. In the win at George Mason, Bembry had 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. The last time a Saint Joseph's player achieved the feat was Dwayne Jones vs. St. Bonaventure on Feb. 19, 2005 when he had 11 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
BEMBRY AND THE BIG 5: DeAndre' Bembry was named the Big 5 Player of the Week for Jan. 18 after averaging 21.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists in two wins. It was his third Big 5 honor of the season and sixth of his career.
REWARD FOR HARD WORK: Phil Martelli announced that junior Brendan Casper has been awarded a scholarship for the upcoming semester. Casper joined the team as a walk-on his freshman year and has seen action in 38 career games. “On a team that works extra hard, no one on a daily basis outworks Brendan. He's a great teammate and a great student and this announcement to the team was met with great joy,” said Martelli. Casper had a season-high four points vs. Fordham.
ROAD WARRIORS: SJU is 5-0 on the road this year, with wins at Columbia, Temple, Richmond, George Mason and Penn. The Hawks also played three neutral site games, with two in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun Arena (Florida, ODU) and one at the Barclays Center in the ACC-Atlantic 10 doubleheader (Virginia Tech).
HOLDING ON: The Hawks are a perfect 11-0 when owning a lead at halftime. They've only trailed at the half in six games and have won three of those.
FACE THE NATION: Saint Joseph's has the 19th best winning percentage (.833) in the nation. The Hawks are also 24th in the nation in defensive rebounding (28.9).
FLYING START: This is the quickest that the Hawks have achieved 15 wins since the undefeated season in 2003-04. The seven-game winning streak that ended with the loss to VCU on Jan. 5 was the longest since a seven-game streak in January 2009. The Hawks have already surpassed last season's victory total of 13 and have now won 11 of the last 12 games. The 2013-14 team, which went 24-10, was 13-5 at this point during that championship season.
LOOKING AHEAD: SJU is in the midst of a stretch of four straight games in Philadelphia, closing it out on Jan. 27 by hosting Massachusetts. After that game, they'll play three of the next four on the road, beginning with a Jan. 30 trip to Rhode Island.
