After building a 14-point first-half lead against the conference's second-place team, sealing the win proved too much for the young Hawks. The Hawks unraveled with turnovers and poor shooting in the closing minutes and lost, 74-65.

"That's a damn shame that we could not execute better than that," said Hawks coach Phil Martelli, whose team committed 20 turnovers. "Turnovers, no other number matters. It's strictly turnovers, and the way they attack the basketball leads to layups and high-percentage shooting. You can't guard against breakouts."

The Hawks (11-8, 4-3) were unable to sustain the momentum generated by Sunday's home victory over Xavier, in which they turned the ball over only nine times and scored 82 points.

Inconsistency, the bane of this season, was evident throughout the game. The Hawks began on a 15-2 run but were outscored 18-3 over the final 6 minutes, 56 seconds of the game and turned the ball over four times during that decisive span.

"With this team, it's minute by minute, day by day," Martelli lamented.

Following the Hawks' last road game, a heartbreaking one-point loss at Fordham one week ago, Calathes said the Hawks played "scared."

There was plenty to be afraid of again last night against the Colonials (14-4, 5-1), a team that had not lost at Smith Center since the Hawks beat them here 24 games ago. At the start, however, the Hawks looked at home just minutes from the White House.

At the 16:42 mark of the first half, Saint Joseph's had been perfect on all six of its shots and led by 13, and Colonials coach Karl Hobbs had already burned two timeouts, anything to stop the pummeling the Hawks were laying on his team.

That advantage, however, was almost gone by halftime, with the Hawks clinging to a 34-30 lead.

"We knew they were going to come back and hit us hard once they really got into their flow," said Calathes, who scored 21 points but also committed a team-high six turnovers. "They did, and we really didn't react that way we should have."

The second half turned into a slugfest, with each team answering the other's surge. There were seven ties during the final 20 minutes, but eventually, the turnovers caught up with the Hawks.

Saint Joseph's took a 62-56 lead with 6:56 remaining on a 15-foot jumper by Rob Ferguson. The Colonials, however, pulled even by scoring six points in a 63-second span that ended with 4:09 left.

With the score tied 62, Maureece Rice drove the baseline from the left wing and drained a reverse layup that gave George Washington the lead for good.

"We have to learn how to pull away," Hawks freshman D.J. Rivera said. "At the beginning of the year, we didn't know how to end games. I think we're coming back to that. We should have ended that game better tonight." *