St. Bonaventure beats cold-shooting St. Joe's

An impressive second-half comeback could not overcome a forgettable night of long-range shooting for the St. Joseph's basketball team Wednesday.

Trailing by as many as 25 points in the first half, and 22 with less than 15 minutes left in the contest, the Hawks made a game of it before falling to St. Bonaventure, 73-64, at Hagan Arena.

The Hawks had hit only one of their first 20 three-point attempts before Chris Wilson connected from beyond the arc to cut the Bonnies' lead to 58-52 with 5 minutes, 32 seconds left. St. Joseph's finished 2 for 22 from three-point range while the Bonnies were 10 for 20.

"When you are not shooting well, you have to find other ways to make it happen," said Wilson, who was 2 for 5 from beyond the arc. "We had no movement, no flow or rhythm for most of the first half."

Leading by 60-54, St. Bonaventure got some breathing room when Demitrius Conger (21 points) made a driving layup and converted the ensuing foul shot to increase the lead to 63-54 with 3:33 left.

St. Joseph's is 10-7 and 1-3 in the Atlantic Ten, and this is a far cry from the Hawks team that was the preseason choice to be conference champion. The suddenly rejuvenated Bonnies are 9-9, 2-3.

St. Bonaventure may not want to leave the city, with the win following Saturday's 81-78 victory at Temple.

Halil Kanacevic, who missed the Hawks' previous three games because of a death in his family, scored a team-high 16 points and made all six of his shots.

Hawks guard Langston Galloway left the game for good with 2:19 remaining in the first half after getting poked in his left eye while attempting a steal. Galloway suffered an abrasion of the cornea.

"It was a little blurry, and it was better I didn't go back in the game," said Galloway, who went scoreless.

If the news wasn't bad enough, Hawks guard Carl Jones wasn't in the starting lineup because he violated a team rule. Jones did play and scored eight points, but he missed all seven shots from three-point territory.

"We don't have a lot of rules, and he wanted to tweak one just a little bit, and you have to run the program," coach Phil Martelli said. "You hope that tomorrow he learned."

This was the second time Jones has been disciplined this season. He missed the first three games (one exhibition, two regular season) for a violation of the university's community standards.