KINGSTON, R.I. – Senior Isaiah Miles scored 17 points and added eight rebounds while junior DeAndre' Bembry added a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards as the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team topped Rhode Island, 64-55, at the Ryan Center on Saturday night.It was the Hawks' seventh in a row and their 14th out of the last 15 games.
Sophomore Shavar Newkirk added 12 points, including a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
Miles, who scored 13 points in the second half, went 9-for-10 from the foul line and grabbed eight rebounds in the win. For Bembry, it was his eighth double-double of the season.
The Hawks are 7-0 this year on the road and are one of four teams along with to remain undefeated away from home - Southern Illinois, James Madison, Providence.
The seven-game winning streak matches Saint Joseph's longest streak of the year, which came in December.
Rhode Island (12-9 overall, 4-4 Atlantic 10) scored the game's first four points, but a three-point play from freshman Pierfrancesco Oliva, a jumper by Bembry, and a pair of free throws from Miles comprised a 7-0 run that put the Hawks ahead at 7-4 just under four minutes into the game.
Kuran Iverson tied the game at 11 apiece at the 10:05 mark, but Saint Joseph's (18-3 overall, 7-1 Atlantic 10) went on top for good with a 9-0 spurt that featured five points from Papa Ndao, pushing the lead to 20-11 with 6:48 remaining in the half.
The lead then swelled to double digits as Bembry converted a three-point play at the 5:05 mark to put the Hawks ahead, 24-13. SJU would lead by as many as 13 in the frame as Miles hit a pair of free throws with 44 seconds to play for a 30-17 edge; Jarvis Garrett's jumper with 24 seconds to go left the Hawks with an 11-point advantage at the break.
Saint Joseph's held Rhode Island to 6-of-32 from the field, including 4-of-22 inside the arc, in the half; the 18.8% mark is the Hawks' best defensive field goal percentage mark for a half this season.
Garrett would go on to score the first five points of the second half, cutting the SJU lead to 30-24 on a three-pointer with 18:21 to go, but the Hawks answered with an 18-4 run featuring eight points from Miles and four each from Bembry and senior Aaron Brown that extended the lead to its high water mark at 48-28 with 12:52 remaining.
The Rams responded with a 9-1 run, cutting the margin to 49-37, but a free throw from sophomore James Demery made it a 15-point game, 52-37, with 7:33 to play.
URI cut the margin to single digits with an 8-2 stretch, getting within nine at 54-45 with just over four minutes remaining, but the Rams would get no closer. Saint Joseph's went 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the final four minutes, including six from Newkirk, to salt away the win.
"I put on the board (before the game) that this would be a toughness test. The noise, the intensity of the gam with which they play, they play off of their head coach, five double scorers," said coach Phil Martelli. We passed the toughness test but I'm not sure we passed the basketball test."
"We have to play btter basketball We're not a turnover team The numbers aren't pretty .We have a ways to go but we did a really nice job defensively on really everybody. This was a toughness test which we passed. That's not the level of basketball that we're going to need at the back end of the season," said Martelli.
The Hawks finished the game 23-of-28 from the line, good for 82.1% on the night. SJU also held the Rams to just 31.7% from the field during the game, well below their season average of 44.8% coming into Saturday's game. For the season, SJU is holding its opponents to less than 40% shooting from the floor.
Saint Joseph's returns to Hagan Arena on Wednesday night, hosting St. Bonaventure at 7:00 p.m. Live streaming video will be available on the Atlantic 10 Network, while live audio and live stats will be available at SJUHawks.com.
