PHILADELPHIA – Rasheer Fleming scored a career-high 26 points, but the Saint Joseph's Hawks were upended in a heartbreaker, 78-75 to the College of Charleston Cougars on Tuesday night.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Fleming also pulled in five rebounds. He shot 10-for-14 from the floor and dropped a personal best four three-pointers.
• Derek Simpson filled the stat sheet with 11 points, a team-leading seven rebounds and six assists.
• Xzayvier Brown scored 14. He is the only Saint Joseph's player to record double figures in every game this season and has now reached 10+ in 11 consecutive contests dating to last year.
• Justice Ajogbor had one of his more complete games as a member of St. Joe's with six points, six rebounds and three blocks.
• In addition to Simpson's assist total, Brown and Erik Reynolds II each delivered six dimes. It is the first time since at least the 2005-06 season the SJU had three players with at least six assists in the same game.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Hawks jumped out to an 8-0 lead as three-pointers from Simpson and Brown sandwiched a layup from Fleming. Defense was also key for SJU as St. Joe's forced Charleston to miss its first five shots.
• Charleston started to work its way back into the game, cutting the lead down to a point on a couple of occasions, but SJU maintained its lead heading into the under-8 timeout.
• Coming out of the media, Saint Joseph's took charge, scoring the next eight points in a span of just 98 seconds to go up 34-25 on a layup by Ajogbor with 5:12 remaining in the half. The Hawks were able to maintain the edge, holding a seven-point lead at the break.
• St. Joe's scored the opening bucket of the second half, but an 8-2 for the Cougars sliced the lead to 47-44 a little less than four minutes into the frame.
• On the strength of a 10-2 run with five of the points coming from Dasear Haskins, the Hawks were able to extend to their largest lead of the night at 63-52 at the 11:35 mark of the stanza.
• Once again, CofC battled back, putting up eight in a row, slicing the lead to three with eight minutes remaining.
• Unfortunately, Charleston continued its run and eventually was able to hang on for the victory.  

 
UP NEXT
Saint Joseph's does not have a weekend game and returns to action on Wednesday, December 18, taking on the American University Eagles. Tipoff from Hagan Arena is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.