WASHINGTON, D.C. – Behind a strong second half effort, the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team advanced in the Atlantic 10 Championship with a 75-70 win against the La Salle Explorers on Thursday night.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Xzayvier Brown led the Hawks with 21 points and pulled in seven rebounds.
- Anthony Finkley was in double figures for the fourth consecutive game scoring 14 with five assists, five caroms and two steals.
- Rasheer Fleming posted 11 and hauled in a team-high eight boards.
- Dasear Haskins gave the Hawks some punch off the bench, netting nine with four rebounds in 14 minutes.
- Justice Ajogbor had six points on 3-for-3 shooting, grabbing four off the glass.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- It was a slow start from the floor for the Hawks who began 2-for-10 before back-to-back threes from Anthony Finkley and Xzayvier Brown coming out of the opening media timeout to take an 11-6 lead.
- Methodically, St. Joe's built its lead, in large part to a significant shot differential as the Hawks outrebounded the Explorers 22-12 in the opening 16 minutes of the game. A three from Brown forced a La Salle timeout at the 4:22 mark with SJU up 27-16.
- Coming out of the timeout, the Explorers reset, hitting treys on consecutive trips to quickly trim the lead to five.
- Into the waning seconds of the first half, the Hawks were fouled with one second left on the clock. On the ensuing inbound, Finkley hit a three to beat the buzzer and send Saint Joseph's into the locker room up 36-27.
- Starting the second half, Haskins played a big role, scoring five points and grabbing three rebounds in five minutes off the bench as SJU extended the lead to 53-42 at the midway point of the stanza.
- Haskins efforts were part of an overall protracted run as the Hawks outscored the Explorers 20-7 in an eight-minute stretch to take a 63-44 advantage with 6:32 remaining.
- La Salle made a push late with a frantic run, slicing the lead to six with one minute left, but the Hawks went 6-for-6 at the line to seal the game
UP NEXT
St. Joe's advances to the quarterfinals where it will face third-seeded Dayton on Friday, March 14. Tipoff from Capital One Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with the game to air on Peacock.