The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team (19-4; 8-2 A-10) will put the nation's best road record (8-0) to a stiff test on Wednesday, February 10 when it visits George Washington (18-5; 7-3). Game time at the Smith Center is 7 p.m.
ARENA: Smith Center
TELEVISION: The Comcast Network, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic (Byron Kerr, John Feinstein, Hayley Milon)
RADIO: WNTP 990 AM (Matt Martucci)
AUDIO STREAMING: SJUHawks.com LISTEN
VIDEO STREAMING: A-10 Network WATCH
SJU STREAK: 1 win
HAWKS' NEXT GAME: February 13 vs. La Salle, 8 p.m., CSN/ASN
GAME NOTES
• The Hawks bounced back from a loss to St. Bonaventure to defeat Fordham, 82-60. Shavar Newkirk led with a career-high 17 points and DeAndre' Bembry had 16 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the year. Lamarr Kimble and Isaiah Miles chipped in with 13 points apiece.
• SJU owns the nation's best road record (8-0) as the only unbeaten team.
• SJU has won eight of the last nine games. With 19 victories, Saint Joseph's has surpassed last year's win total (13) and now has the most victories through 23 games since the 2003-04 squad went undefeated.
• The Hawks are seeking their 20th win of the season, which would give Phil Martelli nine 20-plus win seasons during his tenure on Hawk Hill.
• Saint Joseph's RPI is 31, which is the second best in the Atlantic 10 behind Dayton (12).
ROAD WARRIORS: SJU owns the nation's best road record at 8-0, as the only unbeaten team. The Hawks have scored wins at Columbia, Temple, Richmond, George Mason, Penn, La Salle, Rhode Island and Fordham. 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), so their record away from Hagan Arena is 10-1. The best road record for a Saint Joseph's team is 13-0 by the 2003-04 Elite Eight squad, while in recent years the 2013-14 A-10 champion team was 8-4 away from home.
20-20: The next victory will give Saint Joseph's its 20th win of the season and will mark the ninth 20-plus win season under Phil Martelli, which would be the most for any Hawk coach. There have been a total of 22 20-plus win seasons in SJU history.
POINTS OF EMPHASIS: The Hawks' point-guard platoon of Shavar Newkirk and Lamarr Kimble keyed SJU's win at Fordham on Saturday, combining for 30 points and each recording new career-highs. In Newkirk's return to his hometown, he scored a career-high 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting (3 3-pt FG). Kimble also recorded a new personal bestwith 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting, while also hitting three three-point field goals.
BENCHMARKS: The Hawks got solid efforts from a few players off the bench at La Salle. Lamarr Kimble recorded a new career-high with 13 points as he shot 4-for-7 from the field. Papa Ndao hit a pair of three-pointers in the first half as the Hawks fought back from a quick 7-0 deficit to take the lead and he finished with nine points and a season-best four assists.
DB VS. GW: In two career games against George Washington, DeAndre' Bembry is averaging 22.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals. He's played 40 minutes in each of the games and has converted 16-of-31 from the field in those contests, which were both GW wins.
FILLING UP THE BOXSCORE: No one fills up the boxscore like DeAndre' Bembry and he had two of those games last week. He averaged 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.0 assists in the Hawks' 1-1 week, shooting 65 percent (13-20) from the field and 83.3 percent (10-12) from the line. He had a team-high 22 points and seven assists, to go along with six rebounds in the loss to St. Bonaventure, for his seventh 20-plus point game of the year. He followed that with 16 points (6-of-9 shooting), 10 rebounds and seven assists in win over Fordham for his seventh double-double of the year.
GIVING IT AWAY: Despite the win, Phil Martelli wasn't happy with the amount of turnovers in the game at Fordham, as the Hawks matched their season-high with 14 (also vs. Florida), although point guard Shavar Newkirk didn't have any. SJU is averaging just 10.7 turnovers per game.
UNLUCKY SEVEN: The Hawks can't seem to get that eighth straight win this year. Their seven-game winning streak came to an end with the 83-73 loss to St. Bonaventure on Feb. 3. SJU also put together another seven-game winning streak earlier this season but it ended with a loss to VCU on Jan. 5.
CAREER MILES: Heading into the season, Isaiah Miles had just 444 career points, but with his effort this year, he has surpassed the 800-point mark. Miles now has 841 points in 94 career games.
DEE-FENSE: The Hawks' defense has been a big part of their success. SJU is leading the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage defense (39.5) and in three-point field goal percentage defense (29.5), while ranking 26th and 12th nationally, in those respective categories. At Rhode Island, SJU held the Rams to 18.8 percent (6-of-32) from the field in the first half, which was a season-best effort.
THREE'S COMPANY: The Hawks hit 11 three-pointers, with eight in the first half, in the win over the Fordham, That is tied as the second highest total of the season. The season-high is 15 against Illinois State.
GAINING NOTICE: The Hawks received a season-high five votes in this week's AP Poll and earned two in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Jan. 4th AP poll marked the first time SJU received votes since the 2013-14 season. In that year, SJU garnered votes in the polls of Feb. 3, March 3 and March 17.
DEAN OF COACHES: Phil Martelli is the dean of A-10 coaches in his 21st season as the head coach of the Hawks with a 394-269 career record. He owns a 193-139 record in Atlantic 10 play for the most conference wins of any active coach, and the second most all-time.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Hawks return home to host La Salle on Feb. 13 for the second meeting of the year, in what is designated as the Big 5 game. SJU faces Dayton in a second straight home game on Feb. 17.
