Isaiah Miles had 20 points and nine rebounds and DeAndre' Bembry had 18 points and nine rebounds to lead Saint Joseph's to a 74-57 win over Massachusetts (12-15; 5-10) at the Mullins Center.
Saint Joseph's improves to 23-5 and 12-3 in the Atlantic 10, and is now 10-1 on the road, while earning a share of first place in the Atlantic 10. It is SJU's fifth win in the last six game as they bounced back from their first road loss of the year last Saturday at Davidson.
Aaron Brown had 14 points and four assists for the Hawks while Lamarr Kimble scored 10 points. Bembry, who played just 12 minutes in the second half because of foul trouble, shot 8-for-12 from the field. Miles was 6-of-10 and hit 4-of-5 from three-point range.
Leading 35-31 at halftime, Saint Joseph's broke away in the second half, as Shavar Newkirk got things started with two straight three pointers to give SJU a 41-35 lead. Papa Ndao came up with a block on a UMass fastbreak that led to a three-pointer from Miles to give SJU its biggest lead to that point, 46-35.
Bembry scored six of the Hawks' next eight points and Brown had a layup to push the Hawks' lead to 54-40. A three by Miles at 11:12 gave the Hawks' their biggest margin of the game, 57-40, to that point.
Donte Clark keyed an 11-2 run for UMass as he scored nine points as the Minutemen cut the deficit to 59-51. Saint Joseph's answered with five straight, including a three-pointer from Ndao, to build the Hawk lead back up to 64-51. From there, the Hawks closed out the game and took their biggest lead, 74-53, with 1:29 to go on a three by Kimble.
"The start of the second half, and I said that to him (Bembry) when I took them out at the end, I don't know what the numbers are going to show, but to me it's his leadership," Martelli said of Bembry. "He has something to say to every player on every play and they respond to that and, ironically, going through the airport on Saturday night coming back from Davidson, I said to him, 'That's the first game you didn't talk.'"
"He was a little banged up," Martelli said. "He didn't practice. He turned a bone-on-bone injury at Davidson. But as I've said to him, if you want to be considered the best player in the league, then you have to lead on the road and that's what he did. That (block) might be an example."
The Hawks, who lead the A-10 in three-point field goal defense, limited UMass to 2-for-22 shooting from behind the arc, including an 0-for-11 effort in the first half.
UMass got out to an 8-2 start but the Hawks regrouped after the first media timeout and went on a 10-4 run, with threes from Bembry and Miles to tie it on a layup by Brown. Brown then gave SJU its first lead, 13-12 on a free throw.
After UMass scored four straight to go up 16-13, the Hawks went on a 16-4 run, with seven points from Lamarr Kimble, to give the Hawks their biggest lead of the half, 29-20.
UMass forced another tie, 31-31, but SJU closed out the half with four straight, including a Bembry layup at the buzzer to take a 35-31 lead into the break.
Clark led the Minutemen with 20 points and Jabarie Hinds scored 19 points.
Senior Papa Ndao made the start in place of Pierfrancesco Oliva, who didn't make the trip because of an illness.
Saint Joseph's returns home for the first of its final two home games on Sunday when it hosts Saint Louis.
