St. Joe's and Loyola tip off at Hagan Arena on Saturday. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
January 13, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
PHILADELPHIA – In early December at the Wells Fargo Center, Saint Joseph’s raised both a banner and hopes for the program.
The banner, earned from the Hawks’ Big 5 Classic championship, isn’t going anywhere. No, that’s still in the rafters down in South Philly.
But those hopes, well, they aren’t flying high anymore.
A surprising 0-3 start in Atlantic 10 Conference play after such a promising nonconference run will do that.
After dropping a pair of road games to start league play, the 5 ½-point favored Hawks returned home against Loyola Chicago on Saturday afternoon. Joe Lunardi banged the drum for his 1,200th game, and Erik Reynolds II seemingly was banging on Lunardi’s laptop for inclusion Mr. Bracketologist’s next bracket with unbelievable play for the first 14 minutes of the second half.
It all evaporated in the final 6:13. So suddenly. So shockingly.
Reynolds cooled, the Hawks couldn’t stop Loyola and those soaring hopes landed hard at Hagan Arena.
Final: Loyola 78, St. Joe’s 75.
St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange spewed positivity afterward, as you’d expect and understand.
“It’s the season, it’s the season,” he said when I asked what his message would be to supporters. “Keep supporting. Keep being faithful. Keeping thinking about TWHND. That’s what I would tell them.”
It sure seemed like those supporters would be leaving Hagan Arena smiling and hopeful again when Reynolds drained a 3-pointer from nearly the same spot as the previous possession, the latest putting the Hawks up a game-high nine points, 68-59, with 6:13 to play.
In your head, a Reynolds column was starting to form. He was magical to that point after the break, connecting from long range with ease, finding teammates for easy baskets, anticipating passes that led to a steal and one of his two, two-handed dunks.
He was simply unstoppable. He looked even faster than usual, too, with those slick green sneakers. Marvelous. Hopeful.
But then, everything stopped falling. Stunningly, the Hawks would not make another field goal, missing seven attempts, including three 3-point tries, in the final 6:13. They did get some points from the free-throw line, but not enough.
Defensively, St. Joe’s started looking again like the unit that surrendered a whopping 55 points after halftime in Wednesday’s 88-85 loss at St. Louis. The Ramblers were converting inside and out. St. Joe’s didn’t have answers.
“We couldn’t get a stop inside,” Lange said.
Or a shot to fall on their end.
“I thought we got the ball wherever we wanted the ball,” Lange said.
True, the Hawks were getting good looks. They just couldn’t get them to go down.
About the only thing falling in that final second-half stretch was all of that hope that St. Joe’s had worked so hard to build up.
There is still plenty of season. Plenty of time. The Hawks’ most realistic path to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016 always was winning an Atlantic 10 tournament title.
Saying that two weeks ago seemed reasonable.
Saying that today seems like a stretch.
Then, the hopes were flying high.
Now, for the time being anyway, those hopes have descended.
—
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.