Saint Joseph's came to old Rose Hill Gym riding a 12-game winning streak over Fordham. The Hawks managed to miss 15 of 16 shots spreading the two halves and still had the last shot of regulation in a tie game. It was wide open. It missed.

This really seemed like the kind of game where the last team with the ball in its frontcourt would lose. Turned out not to be so when Fordham's Marcus Stout ripped the ball from teammate Brenton Butler's hands with 10 seconds left in overtime, put his head down and rushed the basket. He spun a righthanded layup off glass with barely 4 seconds remaining to give the Rams a 56-55 win that their fans found so exciting they rushed the court.

"Phil Martelli and his program have been the trademark in the Atlantic 10 for years," said an ecstatic Rams coach Dereck Whittenburg. "They're sort of our model. We've been trying to get our program to their level."

St. Joe's (10-7, 3-2) crawled back from a 49-41 deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation as Fordham (10-7, 3-2) looked very much like a team that either did not want to win or know how to win. St. Joe's locked down on defense and Fordham, running the shot clock down each possession, scored just one point in those final 5 minutes.

The Hawks, looking very much like the team that was going to be accused of theft, had the ball with the shot clock off and the game tied at 50. Rob Ferguson got a very good look from 15 feet in the final seconds. He left it short.

"I should have made it," Ferguson said. "I take that shot 100 times a day. I rushed it. We should have had that game won from the get go."

Martelli was thrilled with that shot. He really liked his team's defense, which held Fordham to 37.9 percent shooting and only allowed them to get seven free throws.

"I thought it was a terrific defensive performance by both teams," Martelli said. "Everything we wanted in our game plan worked defensively. The whole thing is take care of the ball. You cannot play a 50-point and turn the ball over 17 times."

Fordham's two 1,000-point scorers, Stout and Bryant Dunston, combined for 29. Butler came off the bench to get 18.

The Hawks had been averaging 81.1 points in their A-10 games. At the half, they had 21, all by Ahmad Nivins and Pat Calathes. Nivins (22) and Calathes (13) finished with 35, but also had seven of the turnovers.

"I thought we came out nervous," Calathes said. "I hate to say it, but a couple of guys kind of played scared . . . I don't know whether it was the crowd or what. We didn't come in and play like men."

Ferguson did not attempt a shot in the first half and got three fouls in just 9 minutes.

"You have to be a brain surgeon to figure out what goes on," Martelli said. "Even the third foul, we were in zone. You have to know we need him in the game and we need him to score points."

D.J. Rivera (10 points, eight rebounds, four offensive) was the only other offense for the Hawks. And he nearly won them the game, grabbing a Ferguson airball on its way down and putting it back to give the Hawks a 55-54 lead with 24 seconds left.

"I thought we were going to win after that," Rivera said.

Instead, Stout made the final play. The Hawks did have one final chance with the ball on the baseline and 4.1 seconds left. They wanted to get the ball to Rivera around midcourt and let him make a play. Ferguson could not make that pass so he threw a long lob in the direction of Nivins. But that got clogged up, the ball got knocked away, and with it went the game.

"It was supposed to be at least a 20-point blowout," Rivera said.

It could have been that under different circumstances. Under these circumstances, the Hawks were fortunate just to have a chance at the end.

"I thought we had it, but we cracked at the end and that's the result we got," Nivins said.

"There was very little direction on the floor," Martelli said. "You can't call a play every time down the floor and that's what we were reduced to."

After four really sharp offensive games, the Hawks never had any rhythm. Part of that was them and part of it was Fordham. Whatever it was or wasn't, it definitely was a loss. *