It's all over for Hawks

IT WAS probably the only way this season could end. Ball in air, buzzer going off and a forlorn Saint Joseph's team trudging to its locker room.

With 11 minutes to go, SJU had an 11-point lead in its first-round NIT game Tuesday night against St. John's before a sparse crowd at Hagan Arena. The Red Storm, minus suspended leading scorer D'Angelo Harrison, had played much of the game like a team traveling the summer AAU circuit. Then, the Hawks, who were hitting everything, started missing everything.

The Red Storm blocked shots, took misses and started running for easy baskets. What looked like an easy win turned rapidly into what looked like an obvious loss, the SJU lead turning into a four-point deficit with 2 minutes left. Then, it looked like overtime when SJU's Ron Roberts hit two free throws with 5.7 seconds left.

Nothing was ever as it seemed for these Hawks. Sir'Dominic Pointer started rolling down the left side of the court, got nearly to the baseline and rose up for a very difficult 15-foot jump shot. He nailed it cleanly for a 63-61 St. John's win.

Game over, season over, recriminations to be considered later.

"For the most part, I don't have an emotional question,'' SJU coach Phil Martelli said of his team's effort. "I have an ability question.''

The Hawks (18-14) shot extremely well for 31 minutes, making 8 of 12 from the arc. They turned it over too much, but they really looked like a lock winner. Then, they proceeded to miss 13 of their next 14 shots, a microcosm of all that had gone wrong.

"In a simple word, it was offense for our season,'' Martelli said.

St. John's (17-15) does not shoot many threes because it can't. But the Red Storm can block shots and they had nine of those, giving the Hawks' inside players something to think about.

All the rotation players except Tay Jones (21 points, 1,845 for his career, third all-time) will be back next season. Perhaps freshman point guard Kyle Molock, who took a medical redshirt after a third major knee issue, will be ready to make the offense run more smoothly.

"We're walking out of here with a loss, having held a team to 63 points,'' Martelli said. "This is college basketball. You have to score.''

Jones and Langston Galloway (16 points) played their last game together. The program is certainly in better shape than when they arrived, but neither has won a postseason game. Now, Jones never will.

"It was an experience good and bad,'' Jones said.

The ending?

"It doesn't get any worse than that,'' Jones said.

SJU got crushed by St. John's bench, 21-3. That has been a seasonlong problem. The Hawks may have worn down late, but it may not necessarily have been physical.

"We were trying not to lose on some possessions later in the game instead of trying to win and playing free and easy,'' Martelli said.

There was that and there were the two spectacular missed dunks by C. J. Aiken. One flew off the rim to nearly midcourt, the other, a tip attempt, caromed out to the scorer's table and into the stands. And there was Pointer, 6-for-22 from the arc on the season. He was 3-for-3 in this game before his game-winning deuce.

"It's impossible for anybody to comprehend [the game-winner],'' Martelli said. "I don't have anything to tell them. Just cover each other's backs. For the next day, it's going to hurt.''

This whole season is going to hurt, but it is over. Which means it is 8 months to mid-November and the next game.

"The season definitely didn't go the way you wanted it to,'' Roberts said. "We felt like we should have been better than last year, but our record doesn't say that.''

It does not.

"It's not effort,'' Halil Kanacevic said. "We just didn't do enough. We played bad, you see the result.''

It really is not that complicated.

"We just have to play better,'' Kanacevic said.

He will get that chance next season. So will Galloway, Aiken and Roberts. It will be the last chance for all of them.