BROOKLYN, N.Y. – It's déjà vu all over again.

For the second time in three seasons, the fourth-seeded Saint Joseph's men's basketball team topped second-seeded VCU, 87-74, in the Atlantic 10 Championship Game at the Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Hawks locked up the Atlantic 10's automatic berth in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.  The bracket will be released by the NCAA later this evening.

The title is the fourth for the program, and the third under head coach Phil Martelli, who led the Hawks to A-10 tournament titles in 1997 and 2014.  Two seasons ago, the fourth-seeded Hawks beat VCU, the two-seed, 65-61, at the Barclays Center.

“As a freshman [on the 2014 team], we had Langston Galloway, Halil Kanacevic, Ron Roberts, and all those guys,” Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and team captain DeAndre' Bembry said after the game.  “We went through a rough year last year, and I'm happy the guys on the team last year got to see a championship this year.”

“DeAndre' was really sharp,” said Martelli.  “His defense on [VCU's] Melvin Johnson was probably the key to the game.

Bembry's offense wasn't bad, either, as he led all scorers with 30 points.  Senior Isaiah Miles, the league's Most Improved Player and the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored 26 points and added 12 rebounds.  Senior Aaron Brown joined the pair on the All-Championship Team, chipping in with 13 points, including 10 in the first half.  Freshman Lamarr Kimble, an A-10 All-Rookie selection, dished out nine assists on the afternoon as well.

All-Championship honoree Korey Billbury scored 19 for the Rams, as did JeQuan Lewis.  Johnson was held to just five points, while Mo Alie-Cox tallied eight points and three rebounds.

Saint Joseph's (27-7) never trailed in the second half after leading by nine at the break.  SJU quickly pushed the lead to 15, as a jumper by Bembry three minutes in made it a 53-38 game and forced the Rams into a timeout.

VCU (24-10) had gotten to within 13 at 57-44 with 14 minutes remaining, but the Hawks went on a 13-5 run over the next five minutes to expand the lead.  Miles tallied seven points during that stretch, capping off the run with a three-point play to give the Hawks a 70-49 lead with 8:45 remaining.

Things tightened up after that, as graduate student Papa Ndao was called for a foul and was then immediately assessed a pair of technical fouls.  The Rams hit on five of the ensuing six free throws to cut the margin to 70-54.

That sparked a 14-5 VCU run to get within seven at 75-68 with 4:28 to go.  Miles hit a pair of free throws on the following possession, and after a missed three at the other end, Bembry hit a layup to push the lead back to double digits at 79-68.

Alie-Cox then missed a pair at the line before Brown made one of two to leave the Hawks with a 12-point cushion at the three-minute mark.  Alie-Cox had a chance at a three-point play to get back within single digits, but he missed the free throw; Bembry then converted a three-point play of his own to make it an 83-70 game with 2:22 to play.

After a VCU turnover, Kimble found Bembry all alone under the basket with 1:50 to go; the junior threw down an emphatic two-hand slam to put an exclamation mark on the Hawks' championship performance.

The early minutes of the game were tight, as neither team led by more than one possession in the opening six-plus minutes.  Brown keyed the Hawks in the early going, scoring six consecutive points to give the Hawks an 8-5 lead with 6:30 to play in the first half.  VCU scored five of the next six points, however, taking a 10-9 lead on a layup by Ahmed Hamdy Mohamed with 14:42 to go.

Bembry answered with a jumper on the next possession that started a 7-0 spurt to put the Hawks on top, 16-10, at the 12:49 mark.  After a layup by Lamarr Kimble pushed the lead to seven at 20-13 with 11:44 to go, both teams went through a two-minute drought before the Rams got a layup out of Justin Tillman to cut the lead to five.  SJU then scored seven of the next nine, capped off by a three from Miles that pushed the lead to its largest point of the half at 27-17 with 7:57 remaining.

The Rams cut the lead to five at 33-28 on a three-pointer by JeQuan Lewis at the 3:46 mark, but the Hawks got it back up to nine on a Bembry layup with 1:55 to go.  The teams traded baskets over the final two minutes of the frame, with Bembry's layup with 17 seconds to go setting the halftime margin at 43-34.

Saint Joseph's shot a blistering 64.8% from the field on Sunday, a season-best.  The Hawks only attempted eight three-pointers, their lowest total of the season, and hit 33-of-46 (71.7%) from inside the arc.  The Hawk defense held VCU to 41.2% from the floor and just 7-of-29 from three-point range.

“They have a wonderful team character, and they have been like this since August,” Martelli said of his squad.  “They went step-by-step and let us coach them.  It's a special achievement for that group, especially for the older guys.”

“I told them in August that I think they're the best team in the league,” Martelli said.

In March, they proved him right.