Saint Joseph's picks up solid win over Rutgers

After five games, here is what we know about Saint Joseph's. These Hawks are still young and will remain so until all these freshmen and sophomores become sophomores and juniors next season. What they already have done is gotten significantly better from Game 1 to now. How that will play over this season and the careers of all these young players will be determined over time.

It is fair to say freshman wing guard Langston Galloway looks like a serious player. He has a wonderful stroke. He sees the game. He plays relaxed and smart.

And sophomore point guard Carl Jones is what we already knew - fearless, occasionally reckless, but very determined.

In the championship game of the Philly Hoop Group Classic last night at the Palestra against Rutgers, Galloway and Jones combined for 41 points as the Hawks won, 76-70.

St. Joe's (3-2) led by 11 late in the first half (33-22) and 10 fairly early in the second (50-40), but the lead was never comfortable. Even when the Hawks look good as they did for long stretches in this game, comfortable probably will not describe this team for a while, if at all.

If any coach could make one wish before a game, it would be simple. Make shots. The Hawks had not made many in the first four games, shooting 38 percent overall and just 22.8 percent from the arc. Make shots and suddenly everything looks better. The Hawks made shots against the Scarlet Knights (3-2), shooting 25-for-49 (51 percent).

It would have been easy to get lost in the coaching matchup, with Phil Martelli on the St. Joe's bench and his son Jimmy on the Rutgers bench, as an assistant to Mike Rice, a former assistant on Hawk Hill. The coaches were more about the game, Rice trying to develop a program that has been lost for a generation and Martelli trying to find the magic again.

"That was hard," said Judy Martelli, wife and mother. "I hope that never happens again."

Her husband tried not to look down at the other bench, but the time he did look, it was "disconcerting," because he noticed "that little sucker Jimmy had our call before I had our call on a foul shot. I had to bite my lip to not laugh."

When Martelli arrived in the Palestra lobby, the first person he saw was "Jimmy out there hustling people, spending time with Chris DiJulia. It was special, to be honest with you. I'm just so proud of Mike . . . Jimmy's in great hands."

In the first half alone, Galloway had 12 points and four assists. He did not miss a shot from anywhere - field, foul line, three-point line. The points were fine, but two assists stood out, one a lob to C.J. Aiken for a dunk that only he noticed was there and a bounce pass ahead of the field to a streaking Justin Crosgile for a layup. Coaches call them basketball plays and they were good ones.

Galloway finished with 20 points, eight assists, one turnover and one missed shot. Jones had 21 points, completing a pretty nice night for any backcourt, much less such a young one.

"Langston's real good," Jones said. "And he's only a freshman. He showed me what he does in practice. He's got a lot more stuff to show you all."

The seniors, Idris Hilliard (10 points, five rebounds) and Charoy Bentley, were the ones toting the tournament trophy around. Bentley's only basket was a big three with 74 seconds left.

"Everybody's talking about the youth, but we can still play," said Hilliard, who also said the young players really are getting better every day.

Aiken, who was the best man at his brother's wedding in the afternoon (he did not make the reception), gives the Hawks their first shot blocker since Dwayne Jones went to the NBA after the 2004-05 season. But, at this stage, he can't make up for all of the defensive mistakes from a group still trying to solve the mystery that is help defense. Or all the turnovers (17 in the game).

The Hawks guards did live in the lane. And they had 19 assists on their 25 baskets. That works.

"They dribbled around," Rice said. "We were always chasing tonight."

Rice also said: "They have a lot of talented individuals on that team. It was just a very soft defensive performance. Credit them, because they had a nice game plan."

Game plans won't really be an issue for the Hawks. It will be whether the players can execute them. On their fifth game night, they did it quite nicely. *