ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – For a season that appeared to be ready to fall apart in early January after an 0-2 start in conference play, the fact that the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team played in the final week of March is remarkable.

Don't cry that it's over. Smile because it happened.

Behind a second half surge, the New Mexico Lobos downed the Hawks 84-69 in the NIT quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Derek Simpson set a career-high with six three pointers on his way to 26 points. He had four assists and ends the year with 188, tying Jameer Nelson and Rap Curry for the second most in a single-season in program history.
• Dasear Haskins netted 14 in the game.
• Khaafiq Myers was strong off the bench with 11 points and eight rebounds.
• Justice Ajogbor scored eight with three blocks.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Lobos got off to a blistering start from the floor, going 7-for-11 to open the contest. St. Joe's was able to stick around, hitting a trio of threes and a pair of free throws as UNM led 15-11 just more than four minutes in.
• During the next 10 minutes, New Mexico maintained its lead, but the Hawks never let the Lobos get too far away as the lead never grew higher than six. Coming out of the under-eight medias timeout, SJU came out as the aggressor, using an 8-0 run, taking a 33-30 lead with 5:03 to go in the frame on a trey by Simpson.
• The run extended to 19-6 as St. Joe's went up 39-32 before taking a 39-37 lead into the break.
• Opening the second half, it was UNM who had the jump, as after the Hawks scored the first bucket of the frame, the Lobos went on a 10-0 run before a corner triple from Austin Williford stemmed the tide.
• The respite was only momentary as a second run by UNM, this time at 13-5 spurt extended the lead to 63-51 with less than 11 minutes remaining.
• New Mexico was able to push the lead out as far as 15 before the Hawks a 9-2 run to cut the edge to single digits, but that was as close as SJU would get.

 
SEASON RECAP

• After an 8-7 record overall and an 0-2 start in Atlantic 10 play, St. Joe's closed the year 16-5 after January 3.
• The Hawks went 13-5 in A-10 play and earned their first double bye in the conference tournament since 2018.
• Five different members of the team were honored by the Atlantic 10, including a pair of major award winners. Justice Ajogbor was the Co-Defensive Player of the Year and a member of both the All-Defensive and All-Academic Teams. Steve Donahue was the Coach of the Year. Simpson was on the A-10 First Team, Jaiden Glover-Toscano was on the Second Team and Williford was on the All-Rookie Team.
• Saint Joseph's won 20+ games for the third consecutive season, just the third time in the 116-year history of the program it has achieved the feat.