STOCKTON, CA (12/28/02) - The streak had to end sometime. It is just the way that it ended left a bitter taste in Saint Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli's mouth. The Hawks were held to just two points over the final seven minutes and 15 seconds in falling to host Pacific, 62-50, on Saturday night at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The loss snapped SJU's seven-game win streak, while the win enabled the Tigers to extract a bit of revenge from their 1997 NCAA Tournament defeat at the hands of the Hawks.
"That was disgraceful," stated Martelli on the team's free throw shooting. "We are not going to beat anyone on our schedule if we shoot 2-of-12 from the line in the second half. We missed a number of lay-ups and did not rebound the ball on key possessions."
Leading 48-46 with 7:15 to play, SJU quite simply imploded on offense. Over the next four minutes, the Hawks missed four shots, two of which were lay-ups, and two free throws. But the team's defense was up to the task, keeping Pacific off the board until a Demetrius Jackson's lay-up with 3:25 on the clock knotted the game at 48.
Christian Maraker, who led all scorers with 17 points, gave the Tigers the lead with a tip-in at the 2:28 mark, but a Jameer Nelson bucket evened it again at 50. That would be the last Hawk points of the night unfortunately as the Tigers scored the final 12 of the contest.
In that final two minutes, SJU missed six free throws, including two each by John Bryant and Delonte West with the Tigers holding a slim 53-50 lead. After Pacific's Miah Davis drained two from the charity stripe with 45 seconds to play made it 55-50, Nelson missed two more from the line, and then the game just slipped away.
As Martelli was quick to point out afterwards, it was not just one player, it was a team loss. The normally sure-handed backcourt tandem of Nelson and Delonte West combined for 10 turnovers, with West turning the ball over a career-high seven times. That counteracted the duo's eight steals, five by Nelson.
Nelson (1-6), West (1-4) and Pat Carroll (1-5), the team's perimeter threats, hit just 3-of-15 from behind the arc. The trio did combine for 41 of the team's season-low 50 points with Nelson leading the way with 16.
Dwayne Jones, who entered the game second in the A-10 in blocked shots, rejected a season-high four shots.
Besides Maraker, Jackson added 15 points for Pacific, and Matt Kemper, who Martelli referred to as the "wild-card" in the team's preparation for the game, came off the bench to score 14 points and grab 15 rebounds. The Tigers upped their record to 5-4 on the season with their fourth straight win.
"We got to 7-0 doing it together and we got to 7-1 together," stated the Hawk coach on the team's record. "It was not any one area or one play. We guarded. We were just not efficient offensively."
SJU will have to regroup quickly as it faces its toughest challenge to date next - A trip to Spokane for a New Year's Eve date with Gonzaga. The Zags have won 29 straight games at the Kennel, and are 131-8 over the last 12 years in the building.
