Isaiah Miles scored a game-high 19 points to lead four players in double figures as Saint Joseph's defeated La Salle, 88-62, in an Atlantic 10 and Big 5 game at Hagan Arena. It was the Hawks' third win in a row and their 10th victory in the last 11 games.
Miles grabbed eight rebounds for SJU (21-4, 10-2 A-10, 3-1 Big 5) while James Demery made 7-of-9 shots to tie his career-high with 17 points off the bench. DeAndre' Bembry had 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists and Aaron Brown scored 11 points for the Hawks.
La Salle was led by Cleon Roberts with 17 points while Karl Harris scored 12 for the Explorers (5-18; 1-11 A-10; 0-4 Big 5).
The Hawks scored the first nine points of the game and never looked back, running up a 27-11 lead in the first 12 minutes as Bembry had 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting. A jumper by Papa Ndao gave SJU its biggest lead of the half, 31-17 with 4:51 to play.
Trailing 36-20, La Salle cut its deficit to 38-27 with 51 seconds to go in the half, but SJU took a 40-27 lead into halftime.
The Hawks continued to roll in the second half, and built their margin to 20, 53-33, on one of Miles' three three-pointers at 14:41.
Leading 62-42, the Hawks went on an 11-2 run, which featured consecutive dunks by Brown and a jumper by Demery to increase the margin to 73-44 with 7:57 to play. Saint Joseph's biggest lead of the game, 79-49, came with 5:07 remaining on a dunk by Demery with the assist from Lamarr Kimble.
Saint Joseph's connected on 51.7 percent from the field in the game, while La Salle hit 35 percent, with 13 of their 21 field goals coming from three-point range.
"I thought we encouraged them to hit a wall. We were aggressive, and DeAndre' and James did a wonderful job on Jordan Price. It was a wonderful crowd and we appreciate it. City games are very important to us. I thought we addressed it with a very mature approach. I'm proud of these guys," said coach
Phil Martelli.
The Hawks had all 16 players on the roster get into the game and Martelli said, "I think it's nice to reward those guys. They work really hard in practice. They do the scout team. There's times like that I wish I had 12 guys. There's times like that where I'm trying to get 16 and not get feelings hurt. In the end, Shavar played a little bit longer because he didn't play very well, and he has to play well for us on Wednesday night. Being around this group is fun everyday. This was another opportunity to be with them for 40 minutes."
The Hawks' 21 victories are the most through 25 games since the 2003-04 team went undefeated (27-0) during the regular season.
Saint Joseph's returns to action on Wednesday, February 17 when it hosts #19/17 Dayton at Hagan Arena.
