St. Joseph's cruises past La Salle, 88-62

St. Joseph's, which has lost once since Jan. 5, is trying to get into the NCAA tournament.

La Salle, which has won once since Thanksgiving, is just trying salvage anything out of a forgettable season while it awaits the arrival of three promising transfers who had to sit out a year.

But when Big Five teams get together, well, history tells us that sometimes you never know what might be possible.

Or not.

The two teams met three weeks ago at 20th and Olney, with St. Joe's winning by 21. Saturday night at Hagan Arena it turned out to be more of the same.

The Hawks scored the first nine points. It was 40-27 at the half and 88-62 at the end.

St. Joe's was coming off a big win at George Washington and will host Dayton, the only team in the Atlantic Ten with a better RPI, on Wednesday. It didn't matter.

"This was a lesson for all those amateur psychologists out there," said coach Phil Martelli, whose team improved to 21-4, 10-2 in the A-10, where they trail Dayton by one. "All you kept hearing was that it was a trap game, a dangerous game. There's some guys in that locker room who don't know they're playing Dayton [next].

"City games are very important to us. I think we approached it with maturity."

The Hawks finished 3-1 in the Big Five. If No. 1 Villanova loses Wednesday at Temple, those three will share the City Series title.

"If we take any team lightly, we could end up losing," said Isaiah Miles, who scored 16 of his game-high 19 points in the second half. "And that would be really bad for us.

"With the record we have and the kind of momentum we have, our confidence is high. But we still have to be ready. We couldn't sleep on these guys. That was the challenge. When everyone's playing collectively, it makes things easier than they should be."

Out of necessity, La Salle (5-17, 1-10) has to play too many guys way too many minutes. Jordan Price is the second-leading scorer in the A-10, and the junior - who began his career at Auburn - did get his 1,000th point as an Explorer. But he finished Saturday with eight, 11 below his average, on 13 shots. And never came out until the end.

"I feel for them," Martelli said. "They look exhausted."

St. Joe's sophomore James Demery tied a career high with 17 points, 11 in the second half. DeAndre' Bembry had 13, all in the first half, to go with nine boards and four assists. He got his fourth foul with 12 minutes to go and didn't return. That, as it turned out, didn't matter.

"We take it and prepare for [Dayton]," Martelli said. "Being around this group is fun. Every day is another opportunity to be with them."