St. Joseph's awaits its NCAA fate

ATLANTIC CITY - All they can do now is wait.

St. Joseph's bubble did not burst after losing to Temple, 69-64, last night in the Atlantic Ten championship, but it deflated some. While some prognosticators are saying they did enough to warrant an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the Hawks are still in the unwanted spot of having to wait until some time after 6 p.m. to learn their fate.

"If you believe in a greater power than us, pray . . . for us please," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said.

Certainly St. Joe's wanted to avoid the suspense by winning last night - thus earning the A-10's automatic bid. But with the Hawks beating ranked Xavier twice over an eight-day span - including in the semifinals - and their having an RPI ranking of 42 before yesterday's games, it should be enough for the selection committee . . . maybe.

"That committee is the most informed committee in America," Martelli said. "They know about our team. They're going to make a proper selection."

It's been four years since St. Joe's last reached the Big Dance. Generally, the Hawks have been treated fairly by the committee, even earning a No. 1 seed in 2004. As of last night, Joe Lunardi, author of ESPN's Bracketology and also the radio color commentator for St. Joe's, had the Hawks among his last teams in. Of course, he also had Drexel in last season, and that didn't turn out so well.

"If I had to bet a mortgage payment, I'd say they're in," Lunardi said. "But I'm not going to."

For the third time in the last four seasons, St. Joe's reached the conference final only to lose. They were attempting to become only the 12th team in Atlantic Ten tournament history to have won four games in four days. In the regular season, the Hawks finished in a tie for fourth place, but lost the tiebreaker to Richmond, and thus, also the first-round bye.

"It had nothing to do with us being tired," senior forward Pat Calathes said.

Nevertheless, St. Joe's started off strong, leading, 25-15, in the first half. But the Owls cut the lead down to seven at the break and opened the second half with a 16-2 run.

"That was the difference in the game," Martelli said.

One day after leading the Hawks past Xavier with 24 points, Calathes came back to earth. In the first half, foul woes limited his production. Most of the time, though, it was the defense of Mark Tyndale and then Dionte Christmas that forced Calathes into 2 of 10 shooting from beyond the arc.

Ahmad Nivins (18 points and 10 rebounds) was an early force, but the junior center had three turnovers in the second half and never regained his footing.

Down the stretch, two Calathes turnovers were especially costly as St. Joe's whittled a nine-point deficit to three. Tasheed Carr scored a layup with 4 minutes and 36 seconds left, but the shots just didn't fall from there on out.

When the buzzer sounded, Temple's fans stormed the court hardly aware that Carr lay beside them on the ground sobbing. If the Hawks get shut out on Selection Sunday there could be more reason to cry.

"It's going to be miserable," Lunardi said.