Saint Joseph's and Saint Louis tip off at Hagan Arena on Saturday. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
February 10, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
PHILADELPHIA – Turns out, Brown can do a lot for you.
I’m talking about Xzayvier Brown and Cam Brown.
The two Hawks guards each delivered huge performances, and both came up clutch down the stretch to lead Saint Joseph’s to an 87-86 victory over Saint Louis at Hagan Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The victory vaults the Hawks (16-8, 6-5 Atlantic 10) into fifth place in the conference with seven regular-season games left. St. Joe’s is two games back of fourth-place VCU for a top-four seed in the conference tournament that would give them a double-bye.
As a reminder, the Hawks’ likely only path back to their first NCAA tournament since 2016 is to win the A-10 tournament and earn the conference’s automatic bid to the Big Dance. In Friday’s Weekly #Big5Hoops Column, I gave St. Joe’s a seven percent chance of earning a ticket.
I’ve felt all along this season that St. Joe’s has the talent and offensive firepower to beat anyone in the A-10. They also give up lots of points, something that has resulted in many close conference games this season.
Both were on display in their latest win.
Starting with the glass half-full, it was the play of the Browns down the stretch that propelled the Hawks.
Xzayvier Brown showed skill and mettle.
He pushed aside a pair of missed free throws with 1:26 remaining and knocked down two from the charity stripe with 52.8 seconds left that gave St. Joe’s an 83-82 lead. After missing on a drive with 31 ticks to play, coach Billy Lange again called on the talented freshman on the Hawks’ final offensive play of the game. Brown got fouled, made two free throws with 7.4 seconds left and the Hawks held on.
“Coach Lange just trusts in me and kept calling my number because I was feeling good,” said Xzayvier Brown, who scored a career-high 27 points. “My teammates, they were like, ‘You’re good.’ They got me. They just made sure I had a good mind-set.
“Even personally, I felt good. The two (free-throw) misses, they were in and out. They were misses, but in my head I was fine. Every day we practice shooting the next shot like it’s the first shot. I felt confident, and my teammates felt confident in me.”
Lange had no hesitation drawing up the final play for Xzayvier Brown during the timeout preceding it.
“If you knew his family and understand how he’s been raised, deeply spiritual kid, he’s raised that way,” Lange said. “There’s just a countenance about him that I’m willing to win or lose with at times.
“Other guys have it too, so I don’t want to just single him out. It really comes down to his faith. Honest to God, the guy is amazing,”
In addition to their remarkable freshman, the Hawks also got a big boost from Cameron Brown in the game’s most crucial moments. First, with 2 ½ minutes left, he faked a 3-pointer, drove baseline, dunked, got fouled and finished the three-point play. Then, with 25 seconds left, he helped out his buddy Xzayvier by tying up St. Louis’ Cian Medley after Xzayvier’s miss on a drive.
“The tie-up was just right place, right time,” said Cameron Brown, who finished with 23 points. “Dude didn’t see me right there. We were trying to create a jump ball and got it.
“(On the dunk) X kicked it to me in the corner, and the lane was just wide open.”
Cameron Brown’s performance and the victory were extra special because they came in his 136th career game, setting a St. Joe’s record for games played.
“It means a lot,” Cameron Brown said. “It’s an honor. The coaches trust me to be able to play in the many games and to see the development of the program from year one to now is just amazing.”
The Hawks held on at the end when Lynn Greer III stripped Sincere Parker as the talented St. Louis junior, who had a game-high 34 points, tried to go behind his back on a drive to the basket in the final seconds.
“Awesome,” Lange said. “I saw Lynn’s grit. I saw Cam be exactly where he is supposed to be. I saw the team not react to a (traveling) call that should have been made. That was a great seven seconds for us.”
True.
But that brings us to the glass half-empty. St. Joe’s couldn’t stop St. Louis on the previous three possessions, as Parker and Terrence Hargrove Jr. (19 points, 8 rebounds) got to the lane and the basket with too much ease at such a crucial juncture.
The Hawks didn’t give up 55 points in a half like they did in the second half of their 88-85 loss at St. Louis on Jan. 10, and they didn’t surrender 60 points in a half like they did in Tuesday’s 94-79 home defeat to No. 18 Dayton.
But the Billikens scored 43 in the first half and 44 in the second. Credit St. Joe’s for getting the final stop when they needed it. But stopping teams continues to be a work in progress for these Hawks.
“We have major work to do defensively,” Lange said. “I’m not going to hide from it. I’m not happy at all, not pleased at all. It’s not a lack of effort. And it’s not a lack of schemes. It’s two things: I think it’s endurance, and I think it’s discipline. I’m not fearful of it being corrected, but it needs to start being corrected.”
If the Hawks can improve even just a little defensively, they have a chance for this to be a special season that culminates with a spot in March Madness.
They have the offense, they have players like Xzayvier Brown and Cameron Brown and others who aren’t just good but have the toughness, the confidence and the fortitude to make winning plays at crunch time.
They just need to get a few more stops. Even they know it.
“I love where this team is at,” Cameron Brown said. “I love this team to death. We have a lot of great pieces. We have a lot of guys who can score. We just have to find our rhythm on the defensive end. As we do that the next few games, the sky is the limit for us.”
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-Editor’s Note: The story has updated to indicate that Xzayvier Brown set a career high with 27 points. A previous version indicated he tied a career high. H/T to Jeff Neiburg from the Philadelphia Inquirer for pointing this out.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.